Discovering You
by barbaridad
Summary: Transformers Prime. Knock Out is stuck in his human form. All the while he temporarily shares the same roof with the woman who feels like she saved a crazed person. The relationship is platonic so far. He doesn't want to confront the cons in his current form.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Transformers Prime. Knock Out is stuck in his human form. All the while he temporarily shares the same roof with the woman who feels like she saved a crazed person. The relationship is platonic so far and sometimes unkind. He doesn't want to confront the Decepticons in this humiliating state.

This story is inspired by Lecirde (deviantart name) drawing of KO and here's the link to her human version of Knock Out:

.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d3fc3gi (remove space between deviantart and .com when you copy and paste this in address bar)

She has great art! Yes she gave me permission to credit her and link to her.

**Disclaimer:** Hasbro owns all that Transformers stuff and what not. I only own my OC characters.

**Characters:** Aurelia [au-reh-leah] (main gal) – is 24 years old who lives alone. Very dark brown hair that's long (almost always has her hair up). Eyes are a very light gray almost white. Skin is slightly tanned. (Aurelia's colors are inspired by this Spanish woman I met who is married to my dad's friend. Yes, her eye color looks just as I described and they are truly her real eye color.)

Lucile – [loo-seal] is 23 years old and long time friend of Aurelia. Hair is long and light brown. Eyes are green. Skin is pale.

**A/N:** First Transformers fanfiction. We'll see how this goes... if this story does not appeal please do not proceed. I would like and appreciate constructive criticism.

A black 2009 Dodge Charger drives down one of the lone streets of Jasper, Nevada. It's 8:00 at night and Aurelia is returning home from a company gathering that took longer than she would have liked. She doesn't bother turning on the radio. Her mindset is to simply head home and relax.

She notices something on the side of the road. Slowing down the vehicle's speed she clearly sees it's a person lying there unconscious. She's now at complete stop and rolls down her the passenger window. The man lies there without any clothes.

"Hey! Sir? Sir?"

She receives no answer and after a while she decides to risk approaching this person. She cuts the engine and leaves the car making sure it's locked. She looks down at her name tag that is starting to bother her, Aurelia. She looks around wearily and cautiously makes her way to the person. Upon closer inspection of the body she notices steam is coming off from it.

"It's cold tonight how can that be?"

She nudges him on the shoulder with her foot to wake him up. No reaction from him. She nudges him one more time and his condition remains the same. She sighs aloud not knowing what to do since she forgot her cell phone at home. She gets braver and kneels next to him as she brings her face near him to hear if he's breathing.

His body heat feels unusually high. Alarmed, she takes her unsteady hand to touch his forehead. Her eyes widen at the feel of his fiery skin. She touches his shoulder to see if it wasn't some crazy fever he caught. No, his shoulder feels just as alarmingly hot.

She stands up in restlessness and looks around again to see there is no life nearby for a couple of miles. Her heart beats in fear as she is going to go through with her foolish decision. Yes, she has decided to take him with her to at least bring down his high temperature. "Please don't turn out to be some psychopath." She drags his surprisingly heavy body to the back of her car. After a while she finally gets him in and she covers his lower body with her white sweater.

She speedily drives home and every so often she looks in her rear view mirror in fear that he would wake up and do something to her. She finally makes it to her lonesome house as she drives up into her garage. She goes to open her back door and tries to wake him up once again. She hoped he would be awake this time but the result was the same.

This confirms she has to drag him into her house. "Great." She pulls his body out of the car by his shoulders and drags him into her house. She laughs at herself for going through with this nonsense. She does her best to quickly drag him to the closest bathroom. With a great sigh of relief she leaves the stranger's body on the bathroom floor and runs to the room to pull out some gray shorts. She quickly comes back to see he remains in the same spot she last put him.

She works the shorts onto him underneath the sweater that continues to cover him. After that was done she then turns on the water to cold temperature and plugs the tub so water could fill up the bath. She goes to the kitchen to find a giant bowl to fill it with ice. She does this three times until she sees it's enough ice. She runs around the house trying to find her cell phone or her cordless house phone. She finds neither of them. She was hoping to call emergency to come and get this stranger.

Not wanting to delay this any further she goes back to where he was and hoists his body into the bath. The stranger's body splashes into the frigid water causing him to gain consciousness. He sits up straight and alert. He looks down to see this isn't his body and feeling cold. "What the...?" He then sees something in the corner of his eyes and turns to see a frightened human sitting there.

He quickly grabs her by the neck. "Christ!" She cries out. Her eyes widen and holds onto his arm as he pulls her in closer. "What the frag did you do to me skin job?" He glowers. She swears she sees his eyes glow red. She struggles to breath and does her best to speak but is unable to. Only a gurgling noise is heard. He loosens his grip just enough for her to speak and breathe.

"I-I found you stranded... On side of road." He pushes her away releasing her and she starts coughing trying to breathe normally again. She rubs her neck surprised by his iron grip. She hears him get out of the bathtub and goes to the mirror. She scoots out of his way and she quietly crawls away.

Streams of water come off of his body wetting the bathroom floor. He sees that his human hair, goatee, and eyes were colored red and his skin had a fair complexion. He scowls at what he sees and concentrates to try and transform multiple times. Each attempt ended in failure which frustrates him to punch the mirror into a million pieces. Aurelia panics at what she hears and quickly gets up running for the door grabbing her keys along the way. She sees a blur and then clearly sees the stranger standing there as she rams into him.

Her adrenalin kicks in as she quickly pushes away from him and runs in the opposite direction. Her escape becomes inefficient as he grabs her by her arms from behind causing her to slip onto the recently wet tile floor. She sharply inhales from the pain caused by landing onto her knees, but her panic overwhelms her more.

She struggles to get out of his grip but he squeezes her arms some more. The pained arms go numb bringing her to give up her struggle. Her breathing is labored and negative thoughts are all that fills her mind. The stranger forces her to stand up and turns her around not letting her go. "You found me like this you say?"

"Y-Yes." She responds quickly while she stands there trembling.

"This could be the work of MECH. Or a traitor..." The last thing he remembered was a bright flash of light while he was out for a drive. It was apparent to him that this human knows nothing of his kind or MECH. His eyes avert to her smaller form.

He slowly lets go of her arms. He did not like this one bit. He scans the room and spots a phone charger in the kitchen. He goes to it ripping the cord and crushing the charger with ease. Aurelia flinches feeling more stressed about the situation she put herself in. She stands there watching him scan her house and quickly comes back to show her he found her laptop and cell phone. To her surprise he found these objects much too fast.

He crushes the cell phone effortlessly in front of her. Aurelia's jaw slightly drops and covers her mouth from shock and anger. She sees he is about to crush her laptop but she throws herself at it. "P-please don't! I won't call the police or anyone like that. Please!" He lets go of the laptop and she hugs it in desperation. She wipes it down with her large shirt as he had wet it somewhat.

"Bring me something to dry myself." He looks down at his soaked shorts.

She nods her head in the midst of almost crying and does what he demanded. He watches her leave not completely trusting her. Beyond irritated with his situation he tries to think where he should begin to resolve this. He hears shuffling and sees the female is back. She brings him a towel, black pajama pants, and a blow dryer. She hands him the towel first. Quickly, he dries himself while she stands there looking off into the distant.

He takes off his shorts and drops it in front of her to which she looks down at it a bit wide eyed. She tightly closes her eyes not wanting to think of what the psycho might have in mind. He grabs the blow drier and stands in front of her waving it at her face. "Open your eyes."

With her eyes still closed she aims her face at the ceiling and opens them. Her head slowly lowers back down making sure she only sees his face and chest and nothing more. He found her action strange. The blow dryer is shoved into her face as she backs away from it. "What is this contraption?"

The question caught her off guard. "A-a blow dryer?" She stated this as a question. He still looks her with that unsure and irritated face. "You... don't know?" His expression remains the same.

During his stay here on Earth he learned some of the human devices and human practices but this one he could not remember what it was. It's obvious by the name it dries something by blowing air. Nervously she explains, "It's to dry your hair faster."

He hands it to her expecting her to do something about it. She cautiously takes it unsure if she's reading him correctly. "Then dry my hair."

"What?" She looks at him exasperated. He stands there with arms crossed waiting for her to do as he says. "Fine." She says quietly and walks away. "Where are you going skin job? Didn't I tell you what to do?"

She stops for a minute and breathes in deeply gathering her nerves, "You're much taller. I-I need a chair."

He stays in his spot watching her walk away making sure she doesn't break for an escape. He looks back at the kitchen counter top to see the black pajama pants she brought. He quickly discovered how much he dislikes wearing human clothes since it felt awkward. His whole being felt uncomfortable. He starts to pull onto his unsightly flesh.

Aurelia comes with a chair and she places it behind him while he continues to mess with his skin. He turns around to see her point to the chair for him to sit. She plugs in the blow drier and turns it on. The loud sounding blow drier is all that is heard throughout her house.

The warm air, human fingers, and the silence all seemed to relax him at that moment. He suddenly straightens up in his sitting position mentally scolding himself for having such a reaction to this. A few minutes later Aurelia finally finishes and goes to the counter to give him the black pajama pants. From his seat he looks up at her hand with the clothing and he decides to grab her wrist pulling her in front of him.

"Take me to where you found me."

She looks at her watch to see it's almost ten and thinks about how it's almost an hour drive back to that spot. "Do you promise not to hurt me?" She says wearily.

"I won't harm a hair if you just behave and cooperate."

"H-How do I know you're not lying to me."

"You don't but you don't have much of choice either."

She sighs in defeat, "I will take you."

The stranger gets up and heads to her garage door. "W-wait!"

He stops and turns around as she immediately looks away. She sticks out the black pants again, "You should put something on."

He quickly snatches the pants from her and puts it on. He looks down at them and then looks back at her. "Do you always wear such big attire?"

"Y-yes. Sometimes." She looks down at her clothes examining them. Lately she has been wearing clothes that were a size or two larger. She simply hasn't been caring.

"For a human you dress terribly."

She now looks at him in disbelief and uncertain of how to react to his comment. She found his way of being and talking very strange. So she will treat this stranger with caution. Without further delay she goes to find her keys that are on the floor. "I'll bring you something for your feet."

He sees her bring two purple objects in hand and she gives them to him. He places them on the floor and puts them on wrong. She looks up at him not believing what she is witnessing. Whatever happened to him seems to have affected him greatly.

"Umm..."

"What now?" He grumbled.

"That's not the correct way of putting on the sandals."

"Well how would I know I'm- "

He pauses and decides to say nothing more about who he truly is for the moment. He watches her crouch down and places his feet in them correctly. She goes to open the garage door and lets him go first. He enters the garage and hears the car's alarm is off and the doors are unlocked. Aurelia takes one last look at her house seeing that she will have to clean if she comes back alive.

The drive has been deathly silent and Aurelia is on the edge. She was in no mood for the radio tonight.

"Where are you from?"

"Take a guess human." He said uninterested in engaging in this conversation.

"You keep calling me 'human'. You are a hu-"

"No. You don't have a clue blood and guts."

"Are you sure you just didn't get hit really hard by something and forget who you are?"

"You have no idea what I really am."

She mentally rolled her eyes thinking this nut job is just full of it. She didn't press the matter anymore. A white Audi passes by on the opposing side of the road. "I wish I had one." She barely spoke this above a whisper.

"Hmph."

She glances at him puzzled, "You heard me?"

"You only like vehicles up to that level?"

"I know there are other fabulous cars but they cost more than my house does."

"I see."

She was finding this conversation with her captor has calmed her nerves down and distracting herself from issue at hand. Which is strange since he is the issue.

"What's your profession?"

"You could say I'm a doctor of the sort."

"I never would have guessed." Her thought to this is that he is probably someone that performs illegal or non certified procedures.

"What did you think then?"

She shrugged her shoulders. Admittedly she didn't want to say he looked like some model and the way he carried himself comfortably in his own skin; she was starting to think he was a male stripper.

"What's your name?" She continued.

"Knock Out."

"That can't be your real name. I-Is that your stage name?" The idea of him being a male stripper than a doctor seemed more likely. He claims to be a doctor so maybe he does some role playing. She shook the thoughts out of her head not wanting to look further into this than she should.

"No. That is my name. Do you have a problem with that?" He looks at her seeing she is starting to fidget in her seat.

"No, not at all." If she were in a more humorous situation this could turn into a hilarious conversation but it wasn't.

Off into the distance she saw a bright light that looked like some kind of portal. She felt vibrations beneath her car. "Drive to it."

She looks at him like the nut job he is. "Are you serious?"

"Do it!" She slowly drove off the road heading to the portal. "Drive faster." He commanded. She stepped onto the gas some more and she suddenly breaks in a panic seeing giants come out of the portal.

"Don't stop!"

"But-"

"Just do what I say!"

She steps onto the gas again driving towards the robot giants. Her eyes could not believe what she was seeing. The car jumps up and down at the uneven dirt road and the vibrations that came from the robot giants.

"Park behind that rock."

She makes a slow stop behind the large rock and she sees Knock Out take her keys. She tries to retrieve them but he leaves the car. "Wait! Don't leave me here!" She gets out and runs after him. She catches up to him where he is crouching behind another rock. Out of breath she stands there leaning over her knees trying to regulate it.

"Go back to the car."

"Are you crazy? You have my car keys. Give them back. I want to get out of here already."

"No, I will come back. I just had to make sure you wouldn't ditch me." His concentration is on the Vehicons.

"Can we leave? Please."

He ignores her and proceeds further to see them scouting for something. He walks out into the open and waves his arms. "Hey! Drones!" One of the Vehicons closest to him looks down to see the puny human. The Vehicon readies his weapon to fire. Knock Out sees this and runs back behind the rock and grabs Aurelia by the arm running to the car.

The cons start firing at them and Aurelia screams aloud scared out of her wits. "I'll drive!" Knock Out yelled but Aurelia couldn't hear him over the loud crashing sounds. They get into the car and Aurelia starts to fumble with her seatbelt. Knock Out slams onto the gas and speeds away from the blasts. He looks in the rear view mirror to see a well known Autobot appear. "Optimus Prime."

Not a moment sooner he sees the other Autobots arrive. "This will have to wait another day."

She hears this and looks at him. "I-I am not doing that again. No way!"

"Why did you go out there? You must be crazy! I picked up a crazy man..." She said in distraught.

"I'm a Decepticon."

"A what?" Her heart continues to beat faster.

"You saw them."

"You're a giant machine robot thing?" She said in disbelief.

"My kind is more complex than a robot thing you speak of."

"I must be having a nightmare and I've lost my mind. Yeah, this is a nightmare. I want to wake up." She starts pinching herself. That didn't work so the next thing she did was slap herself awake. Knock Out raised a sharp eyebrow at her.

"No, I'm afraid this is real. Sorry to disappoint." He assured her.

She rubs her sand covered cheek and looks back seeing that moonlight reveals some of the robots in the midst of their fighting. She continues to watch until they are too far away to see anymore. So many questions filled her mind during the drive back home. All that was spoken between them was how to get back to her house.

They are now inside the house both covered in sand and dirt. Aurelia stands there staring off into space until Knock Out waves a hand in front of her snapping her out of it. "I will be staying here in the meantime until I can get back normal."

"You can't go someplace else?" She blinks still trying to take this in.

"You brought me here. Can't you be more hospitable to your guest?" He said in sarcasm.

"Tch. I was only trying to help you, you alien freak."

"What a shame. No manners. My decision is final and I will remain here much to your displeasure."

"Manners? You were trying to choke me to death and then you order me around. Where was the manners in that?"

"What can I say I woke up not knowing where I was." He said nonchalantly.

There wasn't much she could possibly do. If she were to call the police she was certain he could take them all out. The other option was the CIA or some other government agency but she felt the end result would be the same.

"Since you claim you're one of those robots then why were your kind trying to shoot you?"

"It's obvious they didn't recognize me since I'm in this incompetent flesh form. By the way I dislike humans."

"Yeah well I don't like your kind so far either. I saw other robots out there shooting their kind. Are there opposing sides?"

"I don't plan on telling you more than what you've witnessed." He goes to sit in the chair where he had her blow dry his hair hours ago.

She suddenly felt a wave of fatigue hit her and she looks down at her watch to see it's 12:30. She dusts off her hands and rubs her eyes trying to stay awake. She looks down at her dirty body knowing she needs a shower.

She goes to the bathroom with a broom and dust pan in hand. She busies herself with cleaning the bathroom even though she's quite worn out. Knock Out just watches her from afar. He notices her updo hair is loose and a bit of a mess. The human female isn't as thin as what he has seen in those automobile magazines though she wasn't lumpy either. He didn't know what to make of her since she wears loose clothing.

"Somewhat unkempt human."

He sees her come out a little sweaty from cleaning the bathroom. He makes a face reminding him how humans sweat and do other distasteful things. He looks down at his own flesh body knowing he will experience it himself. He sees her stand in front of him. "I'm going to shower then you it's your turn."

"Shower? You will have to show me."

"N-No I don't." She turns red in the face.

She tries to think of examples that would make it clear for him. "Okay it's like taking a dip in the lake or standing under a waterfall. You wash your body with water, soap, and shampoo. Does water exist on your planet?"

"No but some other consistency does yet it's unlike water."

"Hmm. So did my example help you understand?"

"I get the concept."

'Thank God.' She said mentally. Since he's from another planet he most likely has no physical attraction to her kind in anyway. Then again he takes form in the human male body. 'Can't get too comfortable around him.'

She goes to the bathroom carrying her change of clothes for tonight. An hour passes by and he finally hears her cut off the shower. He gives her a couple of more minutes for her to finish getting ready. He now stands in front of the door about to knock but instead the door opens.

"Ah! Geeze..." She holds her pulsating heart not expecting him to stand there.

"Took you long enough." He grumbled. He looks down to see her towel drying her wet hair. His notices her dark gray tank top which shows off her round breasts. He looks further down to see she wears a loose fitted blue colored pajama pants. 'The femme has some wide hips.' He cocked his head at an angle unsure of what to make of her but he quickly loses interest.

"Sorry about that. Don't get into the shower yet until I bring you back something to change into."

She walks around him with some of her hair in front of her eyes never noticing that he was observing her earlier. As she returns with the items he notices she's back to wearing bigger clothes again. Now she has on a pale yellow t-shirt that is most likely worn over her tank top.

She sets the clothes and a towel onto the sink and turns on the shower for him. As she is about to leave she stops to inform him, "Oh, uh you should know that when you shower you have to take off your clothes before you get in."

"Humans." Was his only response.

"Strange space creatures." Was her retort.

The door shuts leaving him to clean his human body. The time it took Aurelia to shower was how much time it took to finish cleaning up her house. She currently blow dries her hair as she sits on her mattress that has no underframe to keep it off the floor. Once done she goes to see if Knock Out has finished showering.

The bathroom door opens and there pops out Knock Out. "Seriously!" She wailed covering her eyes not wanting to see him fully naked again. "Do you have no shame?"

He found her reaction a bit amusing as he walks closer to her, "No. I don't see what's the big deal." She blindly backs away with an outstretched arm to keep him away. He grabs her wrist and plants her hand onto his chest causing her to try and pull away. She feels him slowly move her hand downward where she starts to feel his rock hard abdomen muscles. "W-wwhat are y-you doing? D-do you even understand what you're doing?" She feels her face turn absolutely hot.

"What do you think I'm doing?" He said smoothly with a slight chuckle in the end.

She tries to pull her arm away with her free hand while her eyes remain tightly shut, "Y-You're... t-trying to humiliate me!" She grew frustrated with her powerlessness against his strength. He doesn't stop his slow progression.

"No, I feel like you really know what's going on."

"You can't possibly know. You're a different species..."

"Oh? And what do you mean by that?" He was curious to hear what she had to say specifically.

"Y-you're a machine. Your kind can not reproduce like my kind."

"Mmmm I wouldn't say all of that."

She heavily breathes as she feels her hand getting closer to his aim. An idea comes to her and she opens her eyes to bravely look into his red ones and moves closely to him confusing him for the moment.

She brings her knee up to slam hard against his crotch. She sees his face makes no reaction. Her eyes widen realizing his free hand has blocked her attack. He gives her a hard glare, "Just for that I won't wear your human clothes for the rest of the night." He continues to hold her one knee up and kicks her other leg out from under her. She falls hard on her butt and hisses from the pain, "You bastard that hurt!" She rubs her butt and sees him walk away without a care.

She breathes out annoyed at what a bad night this has turned out to be. Her eyelids feel heavy. She looks at her watch to see it's past three. She goes into her room to see Knock Out lying there naked on her bed wetting one of her pillows. She rubs her face irritably not bothering to ask how he got there before she did, "You should dry your hair." She looked away from him as she tied her hair up.

"I don't know how." He said from the comfort of her mattress.

"Yes you do."

"Dry it for me." He messes with a few strands of his wet hair.

"Forget it I'll go to sleep on my couch. I just don't care right now." Feeling more drained from this uncooperative alien she drags herself to the couch and lies in it knowing she will wake up with an aching neck and back. Luckily, there's no work for her in a few more hours.

It's 8:00 in the morning and a consistent loud knock wakes up Aurelia and she rolls off the couch and hits the floor. "Mmmm... at this hour?" She said groggily.

"Aurelia! I know you're in there!"

The female voice sounded familiar and Aurelia is now awake as she goes to stand up. "Why today?" She panicked.

She rubs her pained neck as she runs to her room and quickly closes her eyes as Knock Out seems to have good timing in popping out everywhere. She quickly takes off her pale yellow shirt that reveals her black tank top and gives it to him. "Put this on."

"No." He crosses his arms across his chest in defiance.

She sighs in frustration, "Pleaaaase."

"Who's making all that racket?"

Aurelia looks back at the door hearing the impatient knocking and angry words. "That would be my friend." She stands on her tip toes and pulls the shirt over his head leaving it there.

"What are you doing?" He says as he watches her start to take off her pajama pants and gives it to him. He observes that she's wearing a dramatically revealing, thinner, and tighter looking clothing. He points to it and asks, "What's that?"

She didn't hear what he said as she runs to her room and comes back out wearing a pink bottom reaching a little past her knees. "I really need to do my laundry." She mumbled.

"We need to make up a believable story." She exclaimed. She saw he finally put on the pajama pants but the shirt remains around his neck.

"Not really. Simply tell her how you found me."

"How am I going to explain my useless communication devices? Which is your fault by the way."

Knock Out smiled pleased with himself. "How often does your friend come by to bother you?"

"Sometimes three times a week."

"Do me the favor of not letting her know who I really am. Or else I will terminate you." He starts to mess with his human finger nails.

"I don't plan on it."

She goes to the door taking in a deep breath feeling nervous confronting her friend. She puts her hand on the door knob. "Oh. One more thing..." She pauses for a moment.

"Proceed."

"She may... I guess it doesn't matter."

He looks at her puzzled. Aurelia opens the door to reveal her angry friend that shoves her way into the house. "What the hell is your problem? Why haven't you answered any of my phone calls? You-"

The friend pauses in mid rant and looks to see an attractive stranger standing behind Aurelia. She looks back at Aurelia wondering what's going on. "Are you two... you know? Have you finally moved on?" She looks between the two.

"Oh please! It's not even like that. I already told you I've been over him."

"Really?" She looks at the stranger.

"I swear it."

"Oh good." She goes to introduce herself to the stranger. Knock Out examines her seeing that she doesn't look unpleasant at all for a human. He notes that she definitely dresses better than her friend. Or it could be because she's revealing much more. His thought is that she could be a model if she wanted to.

"Hi! My name is Lucile. I'm Aurelia's best friend." She offers her hand and Knock Out looks at Aurelia with questionable eyes. Aurelia silently shows what he's suppose to do from behind Lucile. He goes to take her hand and shakes it once and quickly lets it go wiping his hand on his shirt.

"What's your name?"

"Knock Out."

"That can't be your name. Come on what's your real name."

"That's really what it is." He was finding this perplexity of his name annoying already.

"Oh."

Lucile turns around to Aurelia, "Who is he? Friend of yours? Friend with benefits? That doesn't seem to be your style."

Aurelia made a disgusted face, "No! It's nothing like that."

"Then what is he doing here?" She said as a matter of fact.

Aurelia didn't know how to answer that. "She found me unconscious on the side of the road." Aurelia looks at him unsure if saying that much was a good idea.

"I'm staying here until I can find my way."

Lucile seemed delighted about the idea of seeing more of him. "Was there something you needed Lucile?"

"Oh yeah. I was just checking on you to see if everything was okay."

Aurelia mentally rolled her eyes knowing her friend was acting sweet in front of Knock Out. "As you can see I'm good."

"How come you haven't been answering?"

"My cell phone and home phone went through a freak accident." Aurelia quickly eyed Knock Out. He gives her a satisfying smirk.

"What do you mean?"

"I have no phones of any kind. I need to buy myself new ones probably tomorrow I don't know."

"I can understand something happening to your cell phone. But your house phone?"

"It got dropped into the water ruining the whole thing."

Lucile didn't question it any further. "I'm hungry. Do you want to go for some breakfast? Oh you're invited too if want to come."

He waved his hand in a no manner, "No thanks."

"Aurelia?" Lucile intensely eyed her friend trying to get just her to join for breakfast.

"No, I'm good but thank you for the offer. Anyways I need to stay home and get some things done."

The brunette gave Aurelia that look that meant she will let this go for now. "Maybe you should get your phone situation done today. After all I worry."

"I'll stop by once I get that done. I can't promise it will be today."

"Okay, well I also have to things to do as well. Walk me out."

Aurelia walks Lucile to the door and gives her a hug goodbye. "Bye Knock Out. I'll see you sometime soon again."

He said nothing in response. Aurelia closes the door locking it and sighs in relief. "Some friend you have there."

"What do you mean?"

"Doesn't matter. Why don't you dress like her? Looks a lot better than you."

"What concern is that of yours? Wait, so you like the way she looks? Weird... I didn't think-" She stops her thoughts not concerning herself over it.

He shrugs and goes to sit on her couch. He pats at the space next to him wanting her to sit beside him. She crosses her arms and walks away to the kitchen looking for something to eat. She pulls out three eggs, butter, and toast. "Do you eat human food? What do you eat?" She digs through her pots and pans.

"I don't survive on human food. I thought you didn't want breakfast, liar."

"I know what Lucile wanted to do so I had to avoid her for at least today. She'll be asking me a lot of questions."

"Could it be that you just wanted me all to yourself?"

"Oh please. Spare me."

She gets up with her pan to see him leaning on the kitchen counter watching her with nothing else to do.

"I don't know. Your friend kept eying me. I guess I'm not a bad looking human. Right?"

"Get over yourself." She rolled her gray eyes making him laugh.

He pulls onto her tank strap and she smacks his hand away, "You look better with something like this."

"So?"

"You're a difficult one aren't you?"

She ignores him and busies herself with cooking. He just watches her go about the process. To ease the awkward silence Aurelia decides to talk to him, "So. Why are you in human form? You hate humans right?"

"I don't know how or why I just woke up like this."

"Strange." She puts the food onto her plate and walks to the dining room. He follows her there and sits across her.

"What will you do now?"

"Not sure. But I will need your help with transportation."

"If it helps to get you out of here faster I'll do it." She takes a couple of bites of her food.

"Hmph."

She smiles a bit seeing that he didn't like how she wants to rush him out of here. Not that he enjoyed being there in the first place. He didn't like being pushed around by any of these inferior humans.

"Who knows I may stay here just for the fun of it and there's nothing you can do about it human."

She chokes up on her food. After a few coughs to clear her throat she breathes out through her nose looking at his self-confidence.

"I hate you." She said in irritation.

"Likewise." He bares some of his white teeth at her.


	2. Chapter 2

Aurelia stares at her computer screen. Eyes slowly close then her head bobs forward which jerks her awake. "Ten more minutes." It has been long day at work and she's ready to go home already. Although, going home hasn't been pleasant lately. Two days ago was a bit of a disaster all because of a certain red head extraterrestrial.

When she came back from work that day she found him tinkering with the many objects that he took apart. She couldn't tell what some of the objects were so she spent that late afternoon yelling, cleaning, and writing down her missing electronics, housewares, and other appliances that required electricity. His explanation was that he needed a way to communicate back to base and that he was bored.

Aurelia sighs aloud rubbing her eyes then sees that it is to time to go home. With renewed energy she shuts down her computer and gathers her magazines and speed walk out of the building. Upon entering her car she pulls out her smart phone to dial Knock Out. She sets the phone on speaker and puts it on her lap hearing it ring.

"What is it?" Knock Out sounded a little annoyed.

"Finally! After what, ten rings? How is everything? You haven't taken my house apart have you?"

"No. Did you get my magazines?"

"Yeah, I bought some for you during my lunch break. I even had people give me a couple of them for free." She was willing to do what it takes to keep him distracted from wrecking everything.

"How nice of them to do that for you. Hurry home, we need to investigate tonight." He hangs up.

"A thank you would have been nice. Damn jerk."

After an hour she pulls up into her driveway to see a familiar blue Lexus. Lucile is standing at her front door. "What does she want now?" Her friend has been bothering her everyday about Knock Out. She parks the car in the driveway and Lucile goes to the driver's side.

"How come you have been ignoring my text?" Lucile backs away as Aurelia gets out of the car with her arms full of magazines.

"What's with the magazines? Oh! They're for him. I thought you told me you didn't have any feelings for him."

"I don't. The only feelings I have for him right now are irritation-" Aurelia closes the car door and walks to the entrance of her house.

"Loathing." She enters with Lucile close behind. Aurelia sees him sitting on the couch watching the television.

"And just more annoyed." He looks at Aurelia and sees her persistent friend behind her.

"You were here the whole time?" Lucile points at him.

"Yeah. What of it?"

"I was knocking on the door all this time and you didn't bother to answer?"

"I was showering." Not once did he bother to look at her.

Lucile looks at his perfectly dry hair, "Sure you were."

Aurelia puts the magazines on the living room table next to where Knock Out's outstretched legs lay. Knock Out notices her mood is different today. She walks away from the two leaving them alone to get something to snack on from the fridge. "Does anyone want anything?"

"No I'm good!" Lucile responded but Knock Out says nothing and continues to watch his favorite channel.

Aurelia takes her food to the dining room wanting to get further away from the both of them. Red eyes watch her. The friend sits closely next to Knock Out as he tries to edge away from her. "You really like cars don't you."

"Yeah."

"Okay, something is up. What did you do to Aurelia?"

"Nothing."

"Really? I don't believe you."

"Yeah."

Lucile breathes frustratedly, "Could you stop giving me these one word answers?"

"No." He almost wanted to laugh but kept a straight face without faltering.

"Whatever. You two better work out whatever issue is going on between you both."

She walks over Knock Out's outstretched legs and goes to the dining room seeing Aurelia with her head down on the table. "Are you sleeping?" She shakes her friend awake. "Hey, are you not feeling good?" She feels Aurelia's forehead, "You're a little warmer than usual."

Aurelia grabs Lucile's hand, "Do you want to spend the night?"

Knock Out hears this. He is not willing to let anyone stand in the way of his investigation tonight.

"Yeah I can stay if you want me to. I-"

"You should go home I'll take care of her." He interrupted.

Lucile scowled at Knock Out's rudeness.

"No." Aurelia said sounding almost desperate. Lucile looks at Aurelia then at Knock Out. She decides this may be a good opportunity for the two to resolve their issues.

"It's okay. I'll leave him to take care of you."

Aurelia stands up and grabs her friend's arm trying to prevent her from leaving, "Oh please don't go."

Knock Out intervenes and forcefully pulls Aurelia's hands away, "She will be fine under my care."

"Knock Out doesn't know how to take care of anyone but himself." Aurelia tried to reason.

He glares at her. Lucile saw this as more of a cause to leave them alone in hopes of Knock Out repaying for whatever he has done.

"Okay I'm leaving and I'm sure he will take good care of you."

Aurelia looks at her wide eyed. Knock Out continues to grip Aurelia's arm tightly. "Knock Out walk me out the door. Aurelia you need to rest. You look like you have been stressing a lot lately."

Aurelia looks at the source of her stress accompany her friend to the door, "You have no idea."

"Byee!" Lucile waved.

"Good night Lucile!" Aurelia said loudly.

Once it was for certain that Lucile was long gone Knock Out starts to pull Aurelia to the front door.

"Let me go!" She struggles to get out of his grip.

"Come on we have to do this. We missed yesterday because of that intrusive friend of yours."

"Then- go by yourself." She finally pulls her arm out of his grip. She straightens up feeling woozy then she pulls out her keys from the pocket of her pants and throws them at that appealing face.

He catches the falling keys and rubs his sore face fuming at her, "Was that necessary human?" He tightly grips her keys as his knuckles turn white. Aurelia hears the crunching noise and her eyes avert to where he holds them. She reaches out to her keys with her heart beating fast but he holds his hand up high making it difficult for her.

"You ruined my keys didn't you?" She said with worry.

"You touched the face." He said darkly while he continues to rub his face.

"That is not even your real body."

He harshly grabs her face pulling her in closely, "I could crush that face of yours." His fingers that grip her face start to constrict around her lower jaw causing her pain.

"L-Let me go." She attempts to pull away but his fingers close in further, digging into that soft flesh of hers.

"Then don't be so disrespectful." His red eyes narrow, they veer from her light gray eyes down to her thick lips.

"You have none for me! Let me go dammit." The more she tries to get out of his grip the more he squeezes her so she cease to struggle.

"How about you ask nicely. Hmm pet? How about it?" He further invades her face getting close to where his lips barely graze hers. She doesn't like what he is doing.

"Give back my keys. Please... let me go." She whispered. She gives in for she did not want holes in her face. He releases her and brings his other hand in front of her face and opens it to reveal her car keys remains intact but the remote and the house key were ruined.

Aurelia was feeling weaker by the minute unable to muster the energy for anger at the moment, "You realize that's my only... "

She felt a wave of chills pass down her body. She held her hot forehead as she sluggishly moves to the kitchen cabinet for some medicine. Knock Out pulls her back by her shirt, "We are leaving now."

She snatches her shirt away from him walking in pain to the kitchen. "You are not getting it your way human." Knock Out walks up behind her, turns her around, and picks her up over his shoulders. "We leave now!"

At this point Aurelia is too ill to fight him off but she attempts it nonetheless, "Put me down! Can't you see that I'm sick?" She starts punching his back with pitiful strength. This was making her condition worse.

"Would you keep still?" He is angry with her resistance. He exits through the front door with Aurelia hanging over his shoulder and he goes to the car unlocking the passenger side first with the key.

"I am not built like a machine! I need my medicine to function properly!" He puts her down and shoves her onto the seat. She tries to get out but he overpowers her keeping her still. He notices how less forceful she is and closes the door on her. He hastily goes to the other side and gets in on the driver's side to see she has escaped.

He breathes hard through his nose, "Arrrg, this femme!"

He goes after her and he sees her pushing through her unlocked front door. He laughs a little seeing how frightened she seems to be. Aurelia desperately runs to what will give her relief. She grabs the medicine and runs to the bathroom barely escaping his hand that grazes her hair. She enters the bathroom immediately slamming the door and locks it. His body slams against the door as she downs her medicine with unsteady breaths.

He punches the door, "You know, I could break this door down! It will be another thing to add on your list of things to replace!"

"God... you couldn't wait for me to at least take my medicine?" Her dizzy head leans against the door feeling her body aching for sleep. She slides down against the door with teary eyes. "I feel miserable and you couldn't give a damn! I gave you permission to use my car."

Knock Out leans his forehead against the door, "Come out, come out, come ooout." He taunted.

She gives in and takes her trembling hand to touch the door knob and turns the nodule. He hears the click and shoves through pushing her body forward. She sprawls out onto the floor and lays there trembling as she curls up in fetal position. She is weak, pale, dizzy, and sweaty.

Knock Out finally understands she is not well. He kneels next to her and rolls her over, "How can I fix you?"

"A-a-and yooou c-call yourssself a doct-tor?"

He ignores the comment and recalls how Lucile touched her forehead. He attempts it but Aurelia moves her head evading his hand as she is unable to push him away. "G-go away." She squeezes her eyes shut and hugs her body tighter.

"How long will it take for you to recover?"

"I n-need ssleep. Go."

He was more than irritated with having another day missed of investigating. He could go by himself but he didn't know his way around the area without radar. His human form is and is not limited. "Nnn, Lucile..." He heard her mumble. Yes, he could go with the friend but that thought is gone as soon as he heard the name. He didn't want to add more to his headaches.

"L-Lucile..."

"It wouldn't be wise to do this investigation with your friend."

She barely shakes her head no, "F-for me."

"Oh. Right. Where's your phone?"

He waits for her reply but sees that she is starting to fall asleep. He goes to the kitchen guessing that it could be there. He sees it and tries touching it but it does nothing and he goes back to the bathroom. "Hopeless. She should get me one of these devices."

He sees particular dark spots surrounding her lower face. He touches them as Aurelia flinches against his finger tips. "What's wrong with your face?"

"Bruises..." She spoke weakly.

He just remembered it probably had to do something with what he did to her earlier. He picks her up and carries her to her room where she finally gets to sleep in her proper room. Ever since Aurelia brought the stranger to the house he's taken over her room and she's been sleeping in the living room while her other rooms were fully occupied with her junk.

"Why'd you leave me Lucile?"

He carefully lays her onto the bed and covers her with many bed covers seeing that she's shaking a lot. He sits next to the mattress and puts his hand onto her sweaty forehead. "Yeah you're much warmer." He wipes his hand against his black pants. "I could just let you go offline." The six days he has been here he has never seen her in this state.

"Unfortunately, I still need your aid."

The next day arrives and it's past noon. Aurelia wakes up hearing voices and she opens her eyes to see everything is a blur. She blinks a couple of times to clear it up. She slowly sits up and there she sees Lucile angrily pointing at Knock Out.

Aurelia's eyes widen as Knock Out is about ready to hurt Lucile. She quickly gets up and runs to stand in front of Lucile only to receive Knock Out's back slap feel weak. He sees Aurelia stand there and he touches her forehead and compares it his. Her eyes flinched thinking that he was going to hurt her for sure this time.

Lucile pulls Aurelia away from him and turns her around to see her face as she touches it in concern. "Are you okay?" Aurelia nods and gently pulls her friend's hands away from her. At the moment Aurelia didn't want anymore touching of her face.

"Looks like you're a hundred percent." The two women turn to glare at him.

"You ass!" Lucile is about to come to strike him but Aurelia hugs her from behind holding her back.

"No! Let it go Lucile. Please. I'm not hurt." Aurelia knew Lucile didn't stand a chance against the nonhuman.

"He was about to hit me!"

"I know... but. I will talk to him once you leave." Aurelia felt her struggling some more. She couldn't contain her friend for much longer.

"Alright. Alright, let me go!" She hesitates for a moment then slowly lets her friend go carefully watching her making sure she doesn't jump at him.

"I'll walk you out."

They both stand at the front door looking at each other in silence. "If he tries to do something to you call me or call the police. I'll even do it for you right now."

Aurelia shakes her head no, "I will talk to him. He isn't all there and doesn't remember much. I guess you could say he is having a frustrating time."

"That doesn't excuse to go around hitting people. Especially women!" Lucile looked furiously at Aurelia.

"I agree. I will talk to him and I will call you if I have problems." She said evenly.

"You promise? You're not very good at talking about your problems."

Aurelia nods in response doing her best to keep her composure. Lucile hugs her goodbye and Aurelia stands there until she sees Lucile drive away far enough. With a limp hand she dreadfully closes the door and locks it. Her head lies against the door feeling overwhelmed.

She suddenly finds herself whipped around and slammed against the door as she breaths in fear. She looks up at the threatening alien unsure of what next. He comes close next to her ear, "I don't need you to protect me or make excuses for me. Although, I'm certain it was for your friend's sake."

"What is your deal?"

He punches the space next to her face making her wince. "I simply want out of this human body."

"I am trying to help." She does her best to keep calm.

"Not good enough my pet."

"I'm not your-"

He places a finger on her lip to keep quiet. Her eyebrows wrinkle at him. His finger slowly slips off of her soft lips and slowly travels down her chin, neck, and stops at her chest where her heart quickly beats.

"Someone is nervous." He looks down her thin white tank top.

She forces him away and heads to the direction of her room feeling the need to sleep again. He catches up to her and spins her around by the waist. "What's the rush femme?"

"Get your hands off of me." She takes a step away from him shoving his hand off of her. His hands grab her wrists and holds them tightly behind her back. He pulls her body closely to him.

"I will do whatever I want. No human such as yourself will command me otherwise."

"I need to go to work." She stares directly at his chest not wanting to see his face.

"Your friend called in for you. You have the rest of the day off."

"I could always call back."

"I won't allow you."

"Let me guess... you want to investigate."

"Of course but as you have shown me it's best late at night."

"Then why won't you let me go back to work? You don't own me to order me around." She couldn't fathom that he wanted to be in her company. She especially didn't want to be in his.

"You will serve as my entertainer."

"The hell I-"

He puts that finger of his onto her lips again. "For every moment I am bored off my aft you will serve to entertain me."

"But-"

He applies pressure against her lips, "I will respect the fact that you have work to do and what not but whenever you are free... If you don't comply to this then I will slowly tear your house apart. As you know I am very good at disassembling things."

He removes his finger and sees her eyes grow wide. "Were you sent to me to make my life stressful and miserable?" She massages her eyelids getting a headache.

"We are going to the dealers to take a joy ride. I have been deprived of my street racing."

"I just recovered! I need to take it easy."

"You could just sit back. Come on already." He aims to the door.

"Would you hold on?"

"What?" He said irritably.

"Lucile changed me didn't she?" She looks down at her well fitted white tank top and gray, knee-length trousers.

"Apparently. She even helped you brush your teeth while you were half conscious."

"I don't remember that... I need to change again."

"You have clothes on what else is there to it?"

"I need shoes and a..." She covers her chest with her loose hair.

"And a what?"

"I know you don't care to understand humans but if I go out like this I will look so wrong."

He looks over to the front door and points at some black footwear. "There's some shoes for you. Now lets go."

"W-wait. Let me go get that thing." As she turns around he grabs her and her shoes and walks out.

"Knock Out!"

At this point he isn't listening and pulls out her keys. He unlocks her side first and goes to the drivers side expecting to see her seated. Aurelia has put on her shoes and gets into the passenger seat. He is pleased to see her get in without further resistance. He starts the car and she sits there with her arms crossed over her chest. He pulls out her phone and hands it over to her along with a written address. "Look it up."

She pulls up the navigation system and types it in. Her stomach growls, "I'm hungry can we stop somewhere? I promise it will be along the way."

"Fine."

She puts in a fast food place for it to search as Knock Out drives them to the destination. He pulls up into the drive through finding this line is taking longer than he would like for it. "Why is this called a fast food restaurant when it isn't so fast?"

"People are going as fast as humanly possible. Or they don't feel like working today."

"Humans are not very fast."

It's their turn and he pulls up to the speaker box, "Hello welcome to Wendy's. What would you like to order?" The person sounded annoyed and uncaring. He motioned for Aurelia to do the order. She leaned over as much as possible, "Can I have the number one with Dr. Pepper."

"Would you like cheese with that?"

"No."

"Is that all?"

Aurelia looked at Knock Out wondering if wanted anything but he shook his head no. He didn't eat human food after all.

"Yes."

"Okay, I have the number one with a Dr. Pepper. Pull up to the next window."

Aurelia sits back and pulls down the visor in front of her and looks into the mirror seeing that her bruised face was very visible. She tries pulling a couple of strands of hair to try and cover it but it only did half the job. She glances at Knock Out, "This." She points to her face, "Was uncalled for."

He stares at the bruises not saying a word about them. "You can't go around hitting or hurting people. It doesn't work that way here."

"You were the one who hit me with the keys."

"Well you wouldn't listen to me. Drinking medicine does not take that long."

"Whatever."

"Please do me a favor, Knock Out."

"What?" He knows what she would ask.

"Don't hurt me, Lucile, or anyone else for that matter. It's obvious you can take on any human being."

"Or what?" He tested.

"I will cooperate with you but you have to cooperate with my situations too. Please. I really am trying to help but you makes things difficult sometimes."

"Please." She begged.

He sighs aloud, "Alright. I can't make promises, but I will try. You know, you are asking me to do something against my nature."

"Thank you." She quietly says with surprise.

They pull up to the window and Aurelia gives her card and she receives it back. A woman is attending them now bringing the food and she seems to have her attention on Knock Out. She notices Aurelia sitting next to him and the woman's smile changes into a frowns.

"Is that your girlfriend?" She asks boldly.

"Girlfriend?" He looks at Aurelia.

Aurelia shakes her head, "Oh no no no it's not like that. He's my uh relative. My cousin."

"More like my p-"

She lightly slaps her hand onto his mouth as he gives her a hard stare.

"We're family that's for sure." She removes her hand mouthing a 'sorry' to him.

The woman's mood is uplifted as she hands him the food, "Your cousin is hot. Can I have you number?"

He quirks his eyebrow at the dark eyed woman giving her a charming smile. Aurelia has never seen this side of him as she takes her food from hand. "I don't-"

"Sorry he's seeing someone right now. Right cuz?"

He pauses for a second observing the woman, "Riiight."

"Too bad. Can I have it anyway, you know in case you break up with her."

"Sorry femme we are in a rush but I might stop by later."

Knock Out hears someone beeping their horn at him. "Slaggin humans."

He drives off while the curly haired woman was in the middle of giving her work schedule to him. "You shouldn't play around with a woman's heart like that." Aurelia looks back to see the woman give the finger.

"I think she wanted more than my so called heart. She didn't look too bad for a human femme."

"You find human women attractive? Don't you think you're lowering your standards per say?"

Aurelia notices he is giving this some thought, "It must be the affect of this human body. Every time I see a femme's bodily curves exposed... I don't know."

"Oh... that's not good. You must have seen something on the television."

He gives her a quick side glance and chuckles, "If it makes you feel better I am not attracted to you." He looks at her once again noticing her well fitted outfit and her long dark hair covers her chest. 'Small waist. Curves jutting out below and above that.'

"No, not to you. Disappointed?"

"No. I feel better about it actually." She smiled.

"Huh." His attention is back on the road.

"How do I appear to you?" He questioned.

"Do you care what I think?" She has her eyes on the navigation system seeing how much further they have to go.

"No but I'm curious."

"You're not my type. Disappointed?"

He nods in acknowledgment. "Nah."

"We are going to get to the dealers in thirty minutes. Right now it's 3:18 p.m."

"That's not fast enough." He presses hard against the gas pedal. Aurelia hangs onto her seat trying not to annoy him with her complaints.

"My car is not meant for speed. I hope we don't get pulled over." She squirms.

"Yeah this automobile sucks."

Knock Out's driving had them arrive in fifteen minutes. Aurelia peers through her window seeing Lamborghinis at first then she sees other luxurious lines of automobiles. "You have expensive taste."

"Only the finest you humans can provide."

"What's your favorite?"

"You will see soon enough."

He quickly parks then gets out already leaving Aurelia behind. "This guy... really."

She runs after him, "Can you lend me your shirt?"

"Why?" He calls back.

She catches up to him a little out of breath, "So I can cover up."

He looks down at her not understanding, "But you're already covered?"

"Do you have something underneath your shirt?"

"Yeah some black undershirt."

"Oh that's great." She holds out her hand waiting for him to give it to her.

He pulls off his dark orange graphic t-shirt revealing a bit of his abdomen muscles. He hands it over and she stares at the shirt, "Lucile lent this you to?"

"No, she got it out from your things."

"I don't remember this." She puts it on over her.

"You're back to wearing larger attire?" He looks at her with an unhappy face.

"What do you care?"

"Whatever." He rapidly walks past a couple of rows making comments every so often to certain cars. He finally stops at a red colored Aston Martin. He lets loose a long whistle, "That's my beaut." His hand slides against the smooth paint tracing the curves of the car.

"Now these are the curves that are most appealing to the optics." He looks back at Aurelia and she rolls her eyes at how entranced he is by a car. She had to admit it was a very good looking car.

"What? You disagree?"

"No, not at all. It is a beaut just as you said."

"If I was in my true from I would transform into this car."

"What? That's the craziest thing I've heard."

She couldn't imagine it but who was she to be a nonbeliever by now. Her life kept on getting stranger by the day. A salesman approaches them, "Good evening to you fine people. Looking to buy a car today?"

Knock Out exchanges a couple of words with the salesman convincing the man to just let him and Aurelia test drive it. "I just need proof of license and insurance of the designated driver." Aurelia shows her proof.

"Alright, you have until thirty minutes to return it."

The salesman watches Aurelia get into the driver's seat and Knock Out in the passenger. The salesman waves to them as they drive off. Ten minutes later the car is stopped at the side of a lone road and the two get out to switch places. Knock Out grips the steering wheel, "Make sure you have your seat belt on."

Aurelia looks nervously at him and she clicks in her seat belt. He drives the car back onto the road and stops to rev up the engine. "I do miss that sound."

She observes that psycho yet excited smile plastered onto his face. This only makes her feel more nervous.

He slams his foot onto the gas pedal causing Aurelia to jerk back into her seat and grip onto it as she holds her stomach feeling the g-forces impact. She was thoroughly surprised a car could create this roller-coaster like feeling.

**A/N:** I promise to get this story on a role! Patience my readers. If I have much readers... *hears the crickets playing in background*

I again would **GREATLY** appreciate reviews and constructive criticism.

:)


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything Transformers, Hasbro does.

**A/N:** I thank you all that have reviewed, favored and put my story on alert! I don't know how to personally send my thank yous since I'm barely figuring out this messaging thing. The only thing I can manage to do is reply to reviews.

**Reviewers:** Reviewers don't be shy come out and review. I'm just as happy to receive new reviewers as I do my same reviewers. :) So don't be discouraged previous reviewers I do appreciate constant feedback. Unless you really don't like my story which is understandable too.

**About the art:** If you want to see Lecidre's version of the humanized Knock Out 'barbaridad' then click my 'homepage'. My deviantart name is 'aridad'. Anywho, you should only be able to see thumbnail that is titled 'Speed Metal' click on it to view larger. Anyone out there have a deviantart?

"Why don't you want to drive? I thought you liked driving."

Knock Out sits in the passenger seat looking quite comfortable. "I agreed to go to that grocery store with you and I figure you could at least pay me back by being my chaperon. It was... torture."

"I had to buy food and finally replace my lock. I wasn't doing it to torture you."

"That's not how I saw it."

"You are ridiculous."

"And you are inferior compared to me." He brings his arms to rest behind his head.

"What's with this abusive talk? You are a horrible... alien." Not that she knew many space creatures but she almost wanted to say he was a horrible human being.

"Shut your mouth."

Aurelia's jaw clenches as she tries to constrain her mouth. She wasn't going to let the situation get out of hand. She tries to be the better person, "It couldn't have been that bad. You had women ogling you."

"Yeees, I couldn't stop turning heads. It was entertaining at first."

"On my end it was really uncomfortable. They couldn't stop glaring at me. I seriously thought one of them was going to cut me."

A strange thought occurred to her, "Maybe next time I should wear a shirt that says 'He's my cousin' with an arrow pointing at you."

He laughs at her idea, "It may make your life a little easier I suppose."

Aurelia yawns feeling sleepy. She looks down at her watch that reveals it's 1:00 a.m. "I am going to wake up so tired for work again. All this for you, you ungrateful alien."

"I _do_ appreciate it pet." It didn't sound too sincere to Aurelia.

"No. You don't. How many times do I have to tell you I'm not your pet." He looks at her quietly while she concentrates on the road. Tonight she continues to wear her work clothes: a blue blazer, pink fitted top, and dark blue jeans.

They remain silent until thirty minutes later they finally see some activity in the sky. Aurelia squints her eyes at an unidentifiable aircraft that hovers low to the ground then transforms into a giant. "A friend of yours?" She questioned.

"Not exactly. You should speed up to it. We may not get another chance."

She increases the speed hoping to make tonight's investigation worthy of her sleepless hours and her diminishing gasoline. "Stop here." She does as he says and she watches him get out of the car running up to the giant.

"Ey! Starscream!" Knock Out doesn't stop running nor calling out the Decepticon's name until he gets close enough. Aurelia sits in her car looking nervously at the robot organism. She sees the giant turn around and it crouches down nearing itself to Knock Out. Aurelia found its movement graceful in some strange way.

"Starscream! It's Knock Out." The humanized Decepticon motions to himself.

"The medic?" Starscream's voice boomed as his disbelief was clearly heard.

"Correct."

"It sounds like you, but it's not." Starscream pays attention to the human's gestures seeing he had too much likeness of Knock Out.

"It _is_ me. I don't know how I came to be a skinjob but I've been stuck in it for over a week."

"Ha ha ha, how I pity you." Starscream angles his face taking a better look at Knock Out's human form.

"You have been missing Starscream. Where have you gone hiding?"

"I am not hiding."

"So the rumors are true. You have gone rogue. You are always scheming Starscream."

"What do you want Knock Out?"

"I was hoping for your help to return to normal or if you had any information."

"Well Knock Out, I am about as clueless as you. Why would I help you anyways? How about you go to the Decepticons for help?" He grumbles.

"I can't go back to base in my current form. Come on, I was your second in command for that short time. I watched your back." He shrugs.

"Maybe so. We never really met optic to optic." Starscream averts mentioned optics to the black Dodge and points to it. Knock Out turns around and waves a hand at Aurelia signaling for her to come.

"They plan to kill me. _Maldito_ (damn in Spanish) Knock Out." Aurelia whispered exasperatedly. Her heart pounds against her ribcage feeling overwhelmingly afraid as she slowly drives up to them. She stops the car next to Knock Out and he opens the door.

"What are you waiting for?" He pulls her out of her the car making her stumble over a little. She yanks her arm away from him and stands behind the door looking at the immense robot. She meekly gives a small wave at it. She felt strange doing the greeting.

"Tell me Knock Out. What is a human doing here with you?" Starscream looks around paying attention to the sky and his surrounding wondering if this is some trap.

"She has been helping me find leads."

"Help? I am most certain you've threatened the human to bend to your will. From the looks of it this human couldn't help you much."

Knock Out laughed knowing there was some truth to that. Aurelia looks at the red head frowning at him. Knock Out sees her frightened yet angry face. He gives her a lop sided smirk. She turns her head away from him, "Hmph." And crosses her arms.

"What's your name human?" Starscream's optics zoom in on her.

"A-Aurelia." She clears her throat, "Wwhat's your name?"

"Starscream." She nods acknowledging him.

"No Commander? Lord?" Knock Out questions this different attitude of Starscream.

"I am my own." The slim mech replies with the gesture of his hand.

"Ah, right."

Starscream's massive hand reaches out to Aurelia. She panics and starts to run away but her fleeing is short lived as his fingers dive into the earth below her causing it to shake. Aurelia loses her footing and stumbles over landing onto her side.

Knock Out outstretches his arm in Aurelia's direction but immediately retracts it not believing his reaction just now. She does her best to get up as fast as possible but the metal claws surround her and pick her up under her shoulders. She screams as she kicks in the air, "Put me down! Please put me down!"

She starts hyperventilating seeing that she's many, many feet above ground. The wind blows around her at this altitude as she consistently blinks to get her hair out of her eyes. Her arms are firmly placed onto his claws.

Starscream settles her in the palm of his metal hand. "Please don't kill me. I-I won't say anything!" Her head bends down to look at his metal palm avoiding to look at his glowing red eyes. His index pokes behind her head which alarms her to scoot forward in her sitting position trying to get away from it. His thumb comes into her view. She leans in the opposite direction backing away from it.

The transformer loses interest in her and his metal pointers surround her picking her up off of his palm. Aurelia sucks in her breath and tightly wraps her arms around his thumb. His moving hand felt awful as more wind blows all around her. She feels her body suddenly go heavy and she starts to slip off of his metal thumb. "Let go human." He shakes her loose at a height that wasn't too safe for a human to land from. She wails out a blood curdling scream. Wind whips her hair against her face.

Knock Out who rapidly closes in on her sees that she could end up taking major damaged. He makes contact catching her with ease. The impact of her body didn't make much movement in his arms. "You are not as heavy as you look."

She lies in his arms a little shaken. She slowly turns her head to see him grinning at her. What started in fear then turned into anger which was aimed at him for trying to make jokes after her near death experience. She hits him in the chest.

"Hey! Is this how you thank me for saving you?" His brows furrow.

She grits her teeth and continues to punch him taking out her frustration. He quickly puts her down and holds her back by the shoulders. She stands there breathing harshly.

"I thought we agreed on the no violence thing."

She huffs, "Well- you can take it."

She tries to calm herself while she places her hands onto her hips, "I..." She shakes her head, "I can't."

"Don't give what you can't take." Knock Out warns her.

She slowly brings herself to sit onto the ground gathering her nerves yet again. "Pathetic human." Starscream called out. Aurelia could care less what the giant thought of her. She rakes her fingers through her hair while Knock Out and Starscream are back to discussing the matter at hand.

"I am not going back to Nemesis."

"You can access it better than I can."

"I cannot bypass without being detected. If you really are so desperate to be normal again then you will have to lay down that pride of yours and go there yourself."

Knock Out starts pacing around shaking his head in disagreement, "Do you have an intercom linked to the base? I have no way of communicating with anyone in my current state."

"You know that is impossible since Soundwave sees and hears all. I could give you the coordinates to Nemesis."

"Right. I suddenly forgot about the quiet one. No, coordinates are useless since they move around."

Knock Out sighs aloud feeling foiled, "How about you give me a device to communicate with you."

"I am not getting involved. I have wasted enough time here." Starscream stands up and transforms into his jet mode.

"Now Breakdown would- Hey! Ey!" Knock Out called out watching Starscream fly speedily away. Knock Out ruffles his hair thinking he should have taken the suggestion no matter the humiliation. Chasing after Starscream would result in vain as he recalls how low on gas the car is.

"Scrap! Fraggin' Starscream. I have to find a way to get to Breakdown." He is done with another failed night and walks over to Aurelia's lying form. She has fallen asleep on the ground. He picks her up carrying her back to the car. Once he has her settled in he leans slightly against the car door looking at her sleep.

Her lips were slightly parted. "Huh." He places his thumb on here lower lip lightly tracing it. He withdraws his hand noticing her move a little bit, "I almost lost my entertainer today." He was tempted to wake her up and make her drive but he didn't want to put up with her rebellious talk. "Disobedient thing." He closes the door and gets in on other side.

The car heads back home. "Turn that way." Eventually Knock Out had to wake up a very disoriented Aurelia who sits there glaring hard at him. "You should have paid attention to where we were going."

"Well if I wasn't so human I could do many more things."

"Sucks to be you." She yawns and starts to stretch out her arms arching her back and leans back into her seat with a tired sounding sigh. "Um... thank you for catching me."

"What's this now? Warming up to me hmm?"

"Pshh. You wish alien."

"Ah, I think you don't want to admit it but I am starting to grow on you."

"More like a growing pain in my side for this week and a half."

Knock Out laughs as he agrees only partially. "We are going to a car show in..." he looks at the vehicle's clock, 2:30 a.m. "Whenever you get off from work later today."

She stares at him in annoyance with those bags under her eyes, "Are you seriously wanting to add to my suffering?"

"Noooo. It should be fun. I'll even let your friend come after she agrees to dress you up." He pats her knee then rubs it. Aurelia pushes the hand away.

"It's fun for you. Why don't you go by yourself with Lucile? Ever since you two made amends she's back to liking you again."

He quirks up an eyebrow, "Your friend has good taste."

"Oh please. Why are you still here? Didn't that giant robot help you?" Aurelia rubs her heavy felt eyelids. She could never seem to get use to feeling so sleepy.

"Don't remind me." He grips the steering wheel. Aurelia doesn't question it further seeing that he's boiling up already.

"Oh um... so Lucile, she has been bugging me to get you to date her."

"Not interested. You should be convincing her to stay away from me."

"Trust me I have but she won't give, and if I push for it some more she will say that I want you for myself. Which I _absolutely_ do not. I've told her of your many faulty attributes."

"Faulty? I would differ in saying I'm grand and not defective in anyway." He turns to look at Aurelia's disagreeable face. "I don't see any of you humans as my equal."

"Hmph."

Aurelia sees that they arrive home as Knock Out drives the car into the garage. "Ahh home sweet home. Well..." She pauses to look at him, "...use to be." He shrugs signifying oh well. Upon entering Aurelia goes to the living room couch and plops herself onto it. She takes off her ankle boots, throws her purse to the floor, and hugs one of the pillows to sleep with.

Knock Out sits on a couch located opposite of her. He grabs one of the many magazines piled onto the table and flips through it. A sound comes from Aurelia's purse. He goes to it and digs in it to pull out her phone. He presses the button for the screen to reveal it's a text message from, "Ignore?"

He taps in the learned code and reads the message, "Hey. How have you been?" He starts scrolling through her messages seeing there's only one from this sender and hundreds of messages from Lucile. He reads one that catches his eyes, "You seen him naked right? What does his-"

The phone is snatched from him. He lowers his hand to see Aurelia look at him in horror after she read the message he was looking at. He grins widely at her, "I didn't get a chance to read your response to your friend."

"I didn't give her one." Aurelia looks back down at her phone seeing a new message.

"How does she know what you've seen?

"I don't know how she did it but it slipped out."

"Ahhh so you've been thinking about me?" He hoovers over her. That familiar sound is heard again. He looks down at her phone to see it's the same person again.

"Who is Ignore?"

She hides her phone from away from his eyes, "None of your business."

She stuffs the phone between her breasts and looks up at him daring for him try and dig it out. Both of his eyebrows rise high, "Are you tempting me?" He stares down her pink top.

"I seriously doubt it's tempting. I'm trying to disgust you away from my phone." She looks at her pink top and tells herself she isn't thinking clearly so she decides to pull out her phone. She licks her palm and wipes it across her phone. Knock Out cringes in disgust and so does Aurelia but she does her cringing mentally. "Disgusting humans."

"I'm changing my code again." She turns away from him to go to the bathroom. His disgusted face relaxes as he watches her wide hips involuntarily sway a little. He looks up at the ceiling, "That's quite a big round aft." He hears her shut the door. After five minutes of standing there he feels like bothering her.

"I wonder..." He stands in front of the bathroom door knocking. "Brushing teeth! I be out soon." Her mouth sounded occupied. He leans against the door frame, "You know, your friend has a bigger rack than you."

Aurelia spits out and rinses her mouth. She pulls out her recently disinfected phone staring at 'Ignore' contemplating as to why would this person text her at this hour. Why did she bother with keeping the number after all these years? The knocking comes again interrupting her thoughts. "You heard what I said?"

She unlocks the door and opens it. Knock Out sees she has this faraway look. "Yeah I heard you admiring my friend's rack. I guess they don't offend you like I thought."

She ties up her hair and heads to her bedroom with Knock Out following close behind. She goes to the bedroom drawer and pulls out a change of clothes for her as well as for Knock Out. She turns around and immediately closes her eyes at what she sees, "God! Really? I thought you learned decency by now!"

Knock Out laughs aloud in amusement and comes to stand near her, "You offended me with your behavior earlier. I figure I could offend you with my bare self since you are so uncomfortable about it." He reaches behind her head and pulls onto her messy ponytail causing her eyes to open and glare at him. "Why are you being a jerk?" She felt him pulling her head back by her ponytail.

"Don't be a purposefully disgusting human next time."

Her face comes closer to him feeling that he's allowing it, "You were prying."

"And?" He spoke closely to her face.

She looks up into his red eyes with a serious expression. This time she closes the distance and sticks out her tongue. She licks his lips. His mouth engulfs that offensive thing in turn she freaks out at the unexpected move. He sucks in her tongue hard and bites down. "Nnnnn!" He forcefully crushes her lips against his holding her head still as she tries to free herself. Her lips starts to feel the pain as they are shoved against her teeth.

She drops the held clothes and she digs her fingernails behind his ears. He bites harder making her dig in more but the more she did this his response was harsher. She withdraws her fingers and tries shoving away his face again. He can taste the mint flavor of her grossly moist, warm mouth. Mmmm! Le' gow!" She then struggles to move her lower teeth against the constant pressure and chomps onto his lower lip. This only caused half the pain he's causing her. Tears start to stream down her face as he bites harder. He lets go knowing he did enough.

She breathes heavily and wipes her mouth angrily as she backs away. He does the same and smirks at his successful payback. "You do something like that again and I will take it a step further." She ignores his threat and walks out of the room to check on the damage of her harmed tongue.

She stands in front of the bathroom mirror sticking her tongue out peering at it seeing that he didn't draw blood. The outer part of her stinging mouth looked red. "I'm not in my right mind." It was painful for her to talk and she sounded strange because of her almost crippled tongue. She bends over to the sink and washes her mouth in fury.

Meanwhile, Knock Out lays on the mattress giving Aurelia about an hour to achieve a deep sleep. During that hour he thinks about why Starscream landed in that particular area. He is to revisit the site tomorrow. His thoughts wander to his partner Breakdown. "How the frag am I going to get that 'Con alone?" He hoped Soundwave hasn't cut the connection for communication if he ever gets back to normal. That or his life signal may show negative.

Knock Out looks at the clock and it's 4:29 a.m. He gets up walking his way to the living room. He removes the covers, "Heh." Aurelia sleeps in her same pink top and black tight shorts reaching her mid thighs. He pokes her side and waits for a few seconds. He pays attention to the sound of her slow, deep breathing. Carefully, he rolls her on her back and picks her up in his arms. He takes her to her room.

He settles her in and lies down next to her. Thirty minutes pass by and Aurelia's body unconsciously moves near to the warmth. She wraps an arm and both legs around the naked body. Knock Out who is facing her stays still throughout the whole ordeal watching her with great amusement. "Wish I had something to record this." He said in a low tone.

She pulls him in closer holding him tighter. He could feel certain curves pushed up against him. The feeling of her warm body was starting to create a strong urge within him. "This may not have been a good idea." Her head lies under his chin as she gets even closer. Her warm breath lightly touches his neck making him shiver. "Mmmm. Hmm. Starscream... good. Hnn... good." She mumbled softly.

He quirks an eyebrow at what he just heard. This was a turnoff for him and in good timing. "Starscream- of all the mechs?" He stays in his position to bare this for a few more hours. The hour finally arrives for Aurelia's internal clock to wake her up.

Aurelia comes out of her deep sleep feeling the warmth. She opens her eyes to see darkness at first then she blinks a few more times and squints her eyes at what's in front of her. She slowly increases the distance and sees a familiar red goatee. She gasps sharply and looks down to see her legs wrapped around his naked body. This added to her shock making her turn bright red in the face. She detaches herself from his body and attempts to runaway. He pulls her back to on the mattress bringing her to him.

"The fu-" Knock Out firmly places a hand onto her mouth and his other arm wraps around her back and slides her up to his eye level. She squeezes her eyes shut not wanting to see his face. "I don't want to hear profanities from that pretty mouth of yours." Her eyebrows wrinkle at him. It's obvious by look on her face she's thinking about how she got here or what happened last night? "You were all over me." He smirks. "You must have thought I was Starscream because you were making noises and saying his _name_ last night."

Her eyes shot wide open. She furiously shook her head no. "Oh yes you did."

She tries to shove off his arm but is unable to so she pulls it down as his hand slides forcefully against her soft skin. "You like feeling my disgusting skin?" His only response was a grin. She stops the hand at her collarbone. "I'm going to work now." She rolls out of the bed.

"So how was he?" Knock Out pries.

"Who?" Aurelia gets some clothes for work.

"Who do you think?" He didn't like this runaround.

"I only remember bits and pieces and no it's not what you think... What did you think?" She stares at the bundle in her hands. The springs of the mattress squeaked and footsteps came closer to her.

"You gave me this surprised looked when I told you." His voice rose another level, "You know what frag I'm talking about!" He yelled at the side of her face.

She flinched, "Why... are you getting so upset about it? It was nothing." She continues to stare at the now tightened bundle she was messing with. "You did not wake up in a good mood today."

She walks away to go get changed but Knock Out wasn't finished questioning her. He turns her around and tilts her head up forcing her to look at him. "Slag! Come out with it." He shakes her face a bit and her eyes open to look at him. He sees her eyes widen and her mouth slightly open at him. Her hand reaches to his face and he backs up a little not certain to what she may do. She is a harmless human she couldn't do much even if she tried. He stays still watching her.

"What happened?"

"Don't change the subject." He growled.

"But your... come with me." She grabs a wrist of his and takes him to the bathroom. She stands next to him with arms crossed while he inspects his eyes with a very pleased expression. "Looks like I won't permanently stay in this forsaken body." His body shook with laughter then his laughter sounded none too sincere. He was starting to sound like maniac causing Aurelia to feel like it may be dangerous to stay in the bathroom with him.

She slowly gets around him and opens the door doing her best not grab his attention. Only one foot manages to exit the bathroom door and she is pulled back around. "Where do you think you're going?" She stares at his eyes. The whites of his eyes are black and his iris remains red making him look all the more sinister.

"I have to change for work. I can't go like this."

"I'm not stopping you. Go ahead." He motioned with his head for her to proceed.

"Unlike you I have shame. Can you please go?"

Knock Out sighs, "Fine. Since you asked _nicely_ I suppose."

He leans outside of the door bringing up that question from earlier, "Are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

"It will disappoint you."

"Huh. Out with it." He hears the continuous shuffling of her clothes stop and now the water runs. He swears she's delaying this on purpose. He hears the door unlock and she finally comes out. She wears black slacks and a red sleeveless top. "Oh slag..." He walks away without another word. Aurelia was thinking how strange he has been this morning. She grabs her purse and ankle boots from the living room rushing out of the house.

Knock Out comes out of the room wearing a simple white t-shirt with dark jeans. He was glad she was gone for he needed to recuperate. He goes to the kitchen and grabs the home phone and sees a list of names on a piece of paper. He starts dialing Lucile. "Hello?"

"This is Lucile correct?" She hears that familiar suave voice and she gets excited. She calms down trying not to sound so desperate.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"You already know." He replied unkindly.

She huffs at his response, "What do you want?"

"I want you." Her eyes widen at this and her excitement rises. Her brain overloads in happiness.

"Hey are you listening?"

"O-oh yes I heard you say you want me."

"Yeah. I want you to come over because I want to borrow your phone."

Her overjoyed moment was short lived. "Oh."

"Do you work today?"

"No." She said sounding glum.

"When are you coming over?"

She hangs up.

"Hello? Hey! Damn femme..." He hangs up and calls again and again until she answers.

"Whaaat!"

"Come over now!"

"What's in it for me?"

Knock Our recalls how Aurelia mentioned that the friend wanted a date. What ever the hell that exactly meant. Was all this worth it?

"How about a date?" It couldn't be that bad.

"Really! When? Today?"

"No... umm not prepared for that date today."

"Oh right right. Okay just let me know whenever. I'll be right over."

"Good." He hangs up. He makes note to ask Aurelia how to perform this date.

It's lunch break for Aurelia and she looks down at her phone seeing many, many text messages from Lucile. Instead of replying by text she calls Lucile. "Hey there sweet lips." Said the smooth masculine voice. This caught Aurelia off guard, "Who is this?" She demanded.

"Here's a hint. I'm going on a date with that friend of yours."

Her eyebrows shot up thinking that it couldn't be, "Knock Out? What's going?"

"Nothing yet."

"Then what is she doing there?"

"Jealous?"

"I'm worried." Aurelia's finger taps onto the table nervously.

"Don't fret she's safe with me."

"Put her on the phone... please."

"Aurelia."

"Lucile what's going on?"

"He just wanted to use my phone to harass you with text messages."

"Okay?" Aurelia knows that Knock Out has a motive for most things.

"Are you really going on a date with him?"

"Yes! Isn't that great?"

"Uh, yeah... you do know he has no job."

"I know."

"So how's he going to take you out with no money?"

"I'll cover him."

Aurelia slaps a hand onto her forehead thinking how desperate her friend is for him. "He might have a disease. Did you see his demonic looking eyes?"

"I did and I kind of like it on him. He told me he went to some body altering place where they dye the white part of the eye different colors. You were his only transportation."

'What? Must have seen that on the television to pull this off this lie.'

"I think you are jealous."

"Ha ha ha don't make me laugh. You can have him if you want. I don't like selfish people. Honestly it has been hell having him as a guest."

"Say what you want but I still think you're jealous."

"Have him I don't care." Aurelia hangs up not caring at this point if Lucile gets hurt by him. She starts reading through her messages.

'I'm reminding you we have that auto show to go to.'

'I tried to transform again but it failed.'

'I went to the bathroom again and tried to transform at least a limb. It only distorted. Looks like I'm getting closer to my old self.'

'Your friend keeps throwing herself at me and complaining how I should be nicer. What is exactly is this dating thing?'

'About that dream you had last night. Did you dream about how he drills his hard-'

Aurelia shivers in disgust not wanting to read anymore of these messages. She didn't want to discover anymore of that sick mind of his. "Perverted alien... I guess he knows about this stuff. Gah!"

She selects the option to delete all messages. Her phone chimes indicating a new message. She looks at it to see it's from 'Ignore'. She deletes the message as well not bothering to read it. She feels a headache coming in strong. "I bet this is just going to get worse." She buries her face in her hands.

Aurelia arrives at the door of her home two hours earlier than expected. She couldn't stop the feeling that something might be wrong. She unlocks the door and enters. She goes to the living room and no one is there. She goes to the dinning room and again no one. She hears a noise and goes to her room and sees the door is shut.

She slowly turns the knob and opens the door unable to register what she is witnessing. The two are mostly naked on the bed. The door opens wider and they both turn around to see Aurelia with her mouth hanging open. Aurelia's infuriating feelings are mainly directed at Lucile. "Get out! OUT! GET OOOUT!" Aurelia screamed.

Lucile clumsily gets up and gets out with her clothes in hand. Knock Out stares at Aurelia in surprise never seeing her this angry. "You." She points her finger in the direction of her door. "Go finish what you started at _her_ house."

"You think you can order me around?" He now stands in front of her in his black boxers.

Aurelia is too angry to care for his threats right now. She stares at his creepy looking eyes, "Leave for good. I mean it!"

He grabs her neck and lifts her up with one hand. "I can kill you right now."

"Dew wit!" He squeezes her frail neck constricting her breathing pathways. Aurelia sees everything slowly go black as she feels she's loosing consciousness. He brings her back down to stand on her feet and lets her go. She drops to the ground coughing her lungs out trying to breath again. This made her headache worse.

"Get out. Lucile can help. The hell you still doing here?" Her voice was hoarse. She leans her forehead against the cold floor and coughs some more. Knock Out crouches near her and picks her up. She kicks the air trying to get him to let her go. He drops her onto the bed and gets on top holding her down. "Would you calm down?"

She only struggles more. Knock Out sighs feeling frustrated. "What's wrong?" He asks as he squeezes her wrists trying to get her to keep still. "I know you hate me like no tomorrow. Why are you acting this way?" She looks away from him feeling more upset. "I don't appreciate others defiling my house! This house that belonged to my dead parents and grand-parents." Tears trickle down her face. "God... Lucile knows this."

Knock Out remains silent not knowing what to say on this fragile topic. He lets her go and lies next to her. Aurelia stays there and silently cries. No other words are spoken for many hours.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Schoool... overwhelming is all I could say. Stinkin' midterm papers and research papers! I know this could have been written better.

Enjoy reading! Hopefully enjoying it...

…..

...

Aurelia is already dressed and ready for work. She stares at her reflection for a few more minutes. Her face is puffy this morning from yesterday's silent crying. She slept all that afternoon and some of the night, however, she woke up in the middle of the night which only meant one thing. The investigation occurred but she did not drive nor did she speak to him.

Aurelia grabs her keys from the kitchen counter-top and leaves through the door that leads to the garage. She settles into her car seat and turns on the ignition. The garage opens up, she pulls out and drives away. She flips through the radio stations but eventually turns it off with a heavy, tiring sigh. Thirty minutes pass in silence.

"Well hello there."

"AAH!" Aurelia swerves out of surprise and in the midst of looking back she almost hits a car on the opposing side of traffic. She steers the car off the road avoiding the blue SUV and makes a full stop. She holds her beating chest from the surprise and panic. After a minute of catching her breath she puts the car in parking.

Her hands continue to grip the steering wheel then leans her head against it. She feels him move from behind and hears him get into the passenger seat. She starts to bang her head against the steering wheel but that doesn't last long. Knock Out interrupts her by pushing her head away from it.

"Don't." She pushes his hands away.

"So the she finally says a word." He notices that she is wearing a red tube top with a black blazer, and a black pencil skirt reaching above her knees. 'Red again? She really needs to get going with that laundry she spoke of.'

Aurelia pulls the key out of the ignition and steps out of the car. She slams the door shut which stirs irritation in Knock Out. High-heels briskly walk until she stops four feet in front of her car with her back to it. Knock Out watches her stomp onto the ground. The heels seemed to be made out of some silver metal-like point while the rest of her shoe is a bright red, shiny, plastic-like material.

She shakes her fists into the air and yells aloud a stream of words in her foreign language. She brings her arms to hang loose at her sides. A silver Chrysler 300 pulls up off the road nearing to where Aurelia stands. She looks back at Knock Out where he is sitting still inside her car.

Knock Out notices her nervousness. The Chrysler's window pulls down to reveal a male who has brown hair with blonde streaks in it. "Hey! Is everything okay? Having problems running your car?"

Aurelia quickly shakes her head, and walks closer to her car. "Everything is fine. I just pulled over needing a- um a breather. But thank you anyway."

"You sure?"

The man looks to where Knock Out is. Aurelia smiles reassuringly and thanks him again. "I am positive. Thanks."

The man doesn't make an indication that he will leave anytime soon, "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Absolutely. I'm running late to work." She smiles nervously. Her eyes squint trying to get a better look at the man's face. He starts to dig around in his car and pulls out pieces of paper.

"Here." He holds out the paper items to her. She quickly takes it and looks down at it.

"That's my business card and two free tickets for the auto show today."

"Oh no no. Please take these back. That's too nice of you."

"Please take them. I insist." Aurelia hears her car door open and footsteps come rushing to the side of her. She groans internally knowing where this will go.

"We would be delighted to go." Knock Out grabs the tickets from Aurelia's hand and puts an arm around her squeezing her shoulder. "Won't we." He looks at her and she's already glaring at him. Through gritted teeth and a forced smile she replies, "Yeaah. We'll come."

"Promise?"

"Ha ha. I don't make promises to strangers. I really have to get going."

Knock Out intervenes again, "She'll come. I'll make sure of that."

"Alright. I'll hold you to that. See you both later on."

The stranger takes one more look at Aurelia and he drives off. Aurelia keeps her eyes on the car until she could no longer make it out. She turns to Knock Out and he's preparing his ears for her tongue lashing. "You idiot! Why'd you do that?"

"They're free tickets! And it's to the car show that we were suppose to go to yesterday."

"You have that choice in going solo. I still haven't forgiven you." She looks at him seriously. "Now that guy thinks I'm going."

"Something wrong with that?"

"There's no way a man would give something away for free to a woman without wanting something in return. I'm sure you would do the same. Or you've done it before."

"Mmm... guilty."

Aurelia sighs loudly and looks down at what she's wearing. "This is... I really need to get my laundry done." Her eyes glare at him with that accusing look.

"What? The generous sir seems he would like a date with you. What's the worst that could happen? By the way, what are the customs to human dating?"

"Hah! A date? He probably assumes I'm easy." She crosses her arms feeling self conscious and never answering his other question. Knock Out leans against her car and stares at her body as she turns around to look at the road. His eyes travel from the curves of her back down to her hips that are more accentuated and down further to those legs that are kept in shape. 'Primus... Those shoes just add to it.' He finds himself favoring her four inch heels with the added platform.

He tears his eyes away from her the second she turns around. He breathes in deeply and exhales loudly. Aurelia looks at him strangely wondering what's wrong with him. He sees that she's twirling some of her hair in one hand while the other rests on the dip of her waist. Her gray eyes aim at the desert ground in thought then looks up at Knock Out through her dark, long lashes.

"Are you doing that on purpose?" She didn't hear it but his voice was a little shaky.

"Huh? What are you-"

He cuts her off. "Never mind. Aren't you going to be late to work?"

He distance himself from her and gets into the passenger side. Aurelia hurriedly gets herself inside and starts up the car. She looks at the radio's clock, "I'm late, I'm late. Uuuhh! I'm freakin' late!"

As Aurelia continues her rant Knock Out notices how much more hiked up her skirt is when she sits. He forces his eyes to look straight ahead again. He was hating the side effects of being a human male. "Any fine femmes I could converse with?"

"I'm still pissed off about yesterday."

He knew she was not letting it go anytime soon. "I promise not to... do _that_ at your house."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I'm not trying to excuse myself but she allowed it."

Aurelia says nothing more to him the for the rest of the ride. She arrives at her workplace and pulls up into the parking lot and parks the car. Legs speed walk to the building and Aurelia looks back to signal with her hand for Knock Out to hurry up.

He does a quick sprint to catch up to her. He apparently wasn't moving fast enough for her so she grabs his wrist and pulls him along. "You walk pretty fast for being in pointy looking stilts."

They walk through the double doors and Aurelia starts to run to the room. Once inside the office she runs to her computer and turns it on. "Come on come ooon. Stupid computer." She gets up and goes down a hall to knock on a door.

"Who is it?" A female voice is heard.

"It's Aurelia. Could I clock in using your computer?"

The door opens and there stands a black haired, blue eyed woman dressed in a nicely fitted peach blouse and a black skirt. "Come in."

Aurelia thanks her and rushes to the computer. "Wow, you dressed nice today again."

Aurelia finishes clocking in and goes to the woman a little out of breath. "Thanks again Lexi."

Lexi smiles, "No problem. Look at you!"

Aurelia laughs in a shy manner.

"Lexi was it?" The male voice grabs their attention.

Both women see Knock Out leaning against the door with crossed arms. Aurelia forgot for a moment that she brought him along. "Ahh, I see. So he is the reason why you're dressed so nicely today?"

"You are very wrong Lexi."

Aurelia goes to stand next to him, "This is my cousin Knock Out."

"Oh! Sorry about that. Ha ha. This is embarrassing." Lexi goes to shake his hand but Knock Out brings her closer by the hand and kisses it.

"Oh my. Charmer isn't he." Lexi observes his strangely colored eyes of red and black.

Aurelia rolls her eyes at the scene. "Is the boss in today?"

Lexi keeps her eyes on Knock Out. "No he's not coming in today."

Aurelia sighs in relief. "I guess I'll leave you two to talk." She walks away and goes to her desk. She looks through her pile of paperwork. She pulls out a few sheets and puts them on a stand. She starts typing away.

Three hours pass and Aurelia finally hears the chattering and laughter die out. It could mean something else too. "Hey Aurelia."

She stops typing and looks up to see a handsome man with light brown hair and hazel eyes. "Oh hi Nash. What can I do for you?"

"Who's the new guy?"

"That would be my cousin, Knock Out."

"Knock Out? Huh. Strange name. Is that his real name?"

"Yeah it is."

"What were the parents thinking?"

Aurelia had to laugh at that comment. She just pictured what Knock Out's possible parents could look like. If he had any. "I don't know." She giggles some more.

"You're still not sleeping well?"

"Nope."

"The bags underneath your eyes seem to look a little better."

"You think so?" She pulls out a mirror from her purse. "Only a little I'd say."

"Is your cousin dating Lexi?"

"No. But if you don't ask out Lexi soon I guarantee he will."

"Shhh. Don't say that so clearly." He whispered.

Aurelia looks around seeing four others in the distance busy with work. "You want to take this conversation in my office?" He suggested with his hands aiming in the direction of the room.

"Sure." Aurelia gets up and follows him to the room. Nash sits at his desk and notices what Aurelia is wearing. "Nice outfit."

"Oh thanks." She sits on the other side of his desk.

"What do you think she'll say?"

"I think it's a yes. She said she thinks you're hot and you two can relate on many subjects... I'm sure you already thought of this but if it doesn't work out the working environment could end up awkward."

"Yes. I've thought about that too." He taps his pen onto the desk getting a little worked up.

"Ask her out. You won't ever know how she feels until you ask. Right?"

"Yes, you're right."

"Good. Now if she does say yes you could take her to some car show today after work. A stranger gave me his business card and two free tickets to the show."

"Really? Thanks... So this stranger just came up to you and said something like, 'Here. Free tickets.' Just like that?"

"Yeah... sort of. As far as I know he does want me to be there."

Nash chuckles and leans in on his desk, "You know, I think you have an admirer. You should be careful though."

"This kind of thing doesn't happen to me very often. I'll give you the tickets later." Aurelia's shoulders slump a little.

"Well... you dress for comfort most of the time. Eeeh I dunno." He shrugs not wanting the conversation to be about her.

"Yeaaah. Okay I have to get back to work now. Later Nash." She gets up and walks out closing the door along the way. Taking a few steps forward she sees Knock Out coming her way.

"What?" She spoke in an unfriendly manner.

"You're still mad I see."

Aurelia walks to her desk, she takes her seat and proceeds with typing. "Back to ignoring me?" He grabs a chair from the desk closest to her and rolls it up right beside her. He sits and rolls the chair much closer invading her space. She found it annoying and uncomfortable so she stops typing on the keyboard. She pushes him away with her arm only rolling him away at an arms distance.

He rolls back to her this time he leans against her. She uses her shoulder to try and hit him underneath his chin but he avoids it. He looks down at her crossed over legs. He grabs the leg on top and pulls her around by the ankle. She attempts to kick him and makes sure to aim her sharp heel at his leg. He prevents her heel from coming in any closer by keeping it in its place.

"You know you can't win with me yet you insist."

He examines her eye catching shoes. With his other hand he places it at the back of her held leg and slides up. Aurelia uncrosses her legs and aims the available limb at his shins but he prevents it from completing the contact. She looks at him then looks around her seeing that most of the employees have gone to lunch. She looks back at him and he his giving her this smile that meant he is up to no good.

He holds down her uncrossed legs but she makes it difficult for him to keep her still. He pulls her in and begins to part her legs at the knees. Aurelia immediately stands up and shakes him off sprinting a couple of steps away from him, he allowed her to escape. He turns around in his chair and leans back smirking. Purposely, his eyes look at her shoes then slowly travels up until he makes eye contact.

Red irises and black scleras continue to give her the creeps. "You have very soft legs. I wonder if the rest of you is just as soft?"

He strokes his goatee as he stares at her. Aurelia walks away from him not quite understanding whether he truly does find human women attractive or simply trying to get to her. She sees Nash walking out with Lexi by his side. Nash sees Aurelia who is now walking down the corridor very slowly. He waves, smiles and gives her a thumbs up. Lexi notices and elbows him playfully.

Aurelia forces a smile at the new dating couple. The two wave at her as they go for lunch. Aurelia's stomach grumbles telling her to do the same. She looks at her wrist watch, it's 1:40 pm. She is then forced to move forward by her arm as she sees Knock Out right beside her. "I need my-"

He holds out her black purse and she grabs it from him none too nicely. "Where do you think you're dragging me?"

"I know you need to eat."

"Yeah. So what is your motive now?"

"What are you talking about? Do I always have to have a motive?" They go through the double glass doors and walk towards her car. He looks down at her waiting for her answer as they arrive to the car.

"Yes." She pulls her arm back and goes inside her car and starts it up once Knock Out gets in. She drives out of the parking lot and gets onto a highway. She drives the car like a mad woman though much faster than this morning which has Knock Out wondering.

"Why drive so fast?"

She doesn't ever answer him throughout the drive which aggravates him to no end but he doesn't show it. Last night's silence was more than he could tolerate. He notices that she drives through a series of streets. There's no fast food places, restaurants, or any other services available. She drives through a neighborhood that she obviously knows very well.

"What's going on?" He demanded. She continues to remain silent and seemingly nervous.

The car slows down and pulls up into a driveway where a familiar blue car is parked. He turns to Aurelia knowing what she has in mind. He reaches out to her trying to grab her before she runs off with the keys. This time she's far enough away from him and runs to the front door. She knocks on it and rings the door bell multiple times rapidly.

Aurelia looks back seeing Knock Out at arms length away from her. Lucile opens the door surprised to see Aurelia standing there but she looks panicky. She then notices Knock Out running and looking furiously at Aurelia. Aurelia evades Knock Out's reach and shoves her way in past Lucile entering her house. He goes in after her but doesn't see her immediately once inside. Aurelia comes from behind Knock Out and pushes him with all her might. He falls forward on all fours.

Aurelia runs out yelling back to Lucile. "He's yours!"

She enters her car and locks it the second she closes the door. She fumbles with her keys but quickly gets it in and burns out of the driveway then speedily drives out of the neighborhood passing all stop signs. She heads back to work with an empty stomach.

By this time Knock Out is threatening Lucile to give up her car keys to him. "Why the frag are you protecting her? She doesn't care for you anymore!"

Lucile looks at him frightened. "I'm scared that you will wreck my car!"

He quickly loses his patience with her. "You're wasting my time!"

"Do you know the way back? Do you!" She challenged him.

He calmed himself knowing that she's right. "Take me to her."

"Or what?"

"You will die."

Lucile backs up a couple of steps and runs from him going further into her house as she goes for her purse. Knock Out swears aloud as things become more difficult to have it go his way. "I've never had to work so hard for something. It's usually others working hard for me."

Meanwhile, Aurelia stumbles into the office breathing raggedly. She rushes her way to her computer and after a couple of clicks of the mouse she clocks out. She grabs a few things and rushes out of the building. Nervously, she looks all around her hoping not to see him come out of nowhere. She safely gets into her car.

She drives away for thirty minutes straight and arrives at a supermarket. She gets in and gets out within an hour rushing out to her car with her cart full of water bottles, snacks, and other essentials. After loading her backseat she starts up her car goes off again. She makes one more stop needing to fill up her plastic gasoline containers. Once she finishes with that she loads them in her trunk and gets back on route.

Feeling a little more relaxed she can't rid the feeling of paranoia just yet. Very often does she check her rear-view mirror just waiting for a blue Lexus to follow or some other vehicle. She did think of hiding out in the desert but that would be foolish and noticeable. The landscape didn't offer coverage near the roads. There was no real chance for her to make it into the mountains without being noticed within maybe forty minutes, which is how far the drive is to reach the mountains at an average speed of 50.

The sound of her pounding heart booms within her ears. She takes the chance and drives off into the desert towards the mountains. Immensely deep cliffs surround this part of the desert. Her car takes shakes as she drives against the slightly uneven terrain. The scorching heat makes her sweat quickly. While she drives slowly she takes off her blazer and rolls down the windows. Digging into her glove compartment she takes out a bandana and goggles.

There isn't a lot of dust picking up on this part of the landscape since the sand is more compacted. Nonetheless, she places the items on her face. Her fear at the moment is the possibility of running into quicksand or getting her tires stuck in loose sand. That wasn't her only potential problem as the high temperatures could cause her car to breakdown.

She tensely drives the whole way there to the steep cliffs at 40 miles per hour. At the distance she is now she could see a pathway within the cliffs. In relief she makes it in and sees the dirt path sharply curve from side to side giving her a chance to hide out at one of the sharp curves. Luckily, the sun is hitting in the direction where the shade is in her favor.

The car is parked and Aurelia strips off her skirt. She now only wears her red top and mid-thigh, laced, black shorts. Aurelia feels incredibly dehydrated again so she reaches out for her fourth bottle of water. She starts to laugh hysterically at her predicament. "If he finds me I'm sure I'm dead. Hahahahaha..."

After her fit of laughter calms down she removes the bandana from her neck and with it she wipes the sweat off of her forehead. At the moment she feels confident he won't find her. She hears echos of small pebbles falling from the tops of the cliff. She looks up at the clear sky seeing buzzards surround her area. She drinks from her water bottle again and starts munching on some chips.

An hour passes by and Aurelia has gotten antsy. She lies angled against her inclined seat while her legs hang outside of the window bouncing against the heated up door. The killer red shoes dangle at her toes feeling the heat waves release continuously from the ground. All of this quiet time has her thinking of many negative possibilities. "He's probably at my house wrecking the place. Where will I go? No. No I bet he's..." She almost wants to start up the car again and go back. "Lucile could be a partner in crime."

She looks at her wrist watch again for the fifteenth time. "Uhhh! Whyyyy!" She takes off her watch in annoyance and throws it onto the car floor. A clinking noise comes from within the radiator, she deciphers. No, she starts doubting again unable to figure out where it was coming from within the car.

Two grueling hours goes by and Aurelia has fallen asleep at this point. Short hums is heard from her as she is in a deep sleep. The door suddenly cracks open and then it slowly opens wider dragging her body along with it. Her high-heels are placed carefully back onto her feet. The door is open at its widest with Aurelia hanging off from it with only a quarter of her body lying on the ground.

A snapshot sound is heard repeatedly. Her legs are unhooked from the car door and her body is dragged further away from the car. The door closes shut and the ignition is turned on. One more snapshot is heard and the car drives away.

Aurelia feels sharp stabs at the base of her legs. Her eyes open and she slowly gets up groggily to see a large condor pecking at her legs. She sits up in surprise and tries to kick it away. "I'm not dead yet!" She springs up to a standing position looking around with the utmost panic she's ever experienced.

Her car is gone along with everything else. She feels her heart sink to the pit of her stomach. She perks up at a noise that is heard far into the distant. This brings back hope as she walks deeper into the cliff hoping her travel to the noise is not a fruitless one. Twenty minutes later she has gotten impatient and starts to take off her heels.

The compacted sand felt hot at first contact but she forces herself to ignore the pain until her feet gets adjusted to the heat as she runs. The heat quickly affects her as she starts slowing down and sweating far too much. She reminds herself to not rush it because dehydration could be what finishes her off. A dragging forty minutes later she gets closer to her destination as the noise is heard loudly. Her eyes squint at the whited out scenery.

The view clears and to her surprise she sees a familiar giant robot. She moves to the side standing against the cliff and keeping her distance. More giants appear. "That bastard left me for dead." She said quietly. She surveys the open area and spots her black Dodge parked behind a giant rock. She also sees, low to the ground, a huge space craft that can be thought of being seen only through sci-fi shows.

"Get the feeling I won't see him anymore. That would be godsend." She tells herself not to get excited so soon. She sees a large rock she could hide behind and observes the activity taking place. The Eradicons are drilling or doing some other work so she takes the chance and sprints across the hotter sand and safely makes it to the rock. She quickly puts on her heels as this part of the land has been exposed to the sun much longer.

She looks in the direction of the car again and runs to the next large rock. She continues to hear one of the giants come closer in her direction. The Eradicon peers down unable to identify anything. It turns back around returning to its duty. She peeks from behind the rock seeing that its clear to make the next run. "One more." She says with hope.

She dashes to her goal but trips in the process and twists her ankle. Her heel got caught in a crack she did not see. She does her best not to cry out as she gets back to her feet and hides. Filled with pain, exhaustion, and eagerness she stands still hearing their earth shaking steps. She limps her way to the car door and slowly opens it relieved to see it wasn't locked.

Opening the door wider she is surprised and enraged to see Knock Out lying there shirtless in red boxers in the passenger seat. His face is turned away from her but she's certain he's awake for who could ignore all the loud drilling noises or the shaking ground.

She kneels in on her seat and looks at the right side of the steering wheel to see her keys are in there and takes them out. She begins limping her way to the back of the car and opens the trunk. She grabs a medium towel and wipes the sweat off of her body. Her shorts are partially made of satin. The material is not breathable and it is soaked in sweat along with her top.

After she finishes wiping off as much as she could she takes out another towel and brings the trunk down but it does not closed completely. She limps back to the driver's side and after settling in she lightly closes the door. Knock Out hasn't made a move as he continues to lie there and in the same position. She reaches out to his arm and yanks him towards her.

No reaction comes from him. She leans over to see his face. His eyes remain shut and his breathing sounds deep. She gets out of the car again and opens the door on his side. She carefully examines him once more and decides that she could possibly pull this off. She grabs him by the shoulders pulling him forward.

"Oh you're heavy." She says as she now surrounds her arms around him from underneath his shoulders. Now she holds him in a hug-like position. She attempts to pull him up out of the seat but quickly settles him back feeling that she will hurt her back in the process. "Too heavy. Guess I will do like I did last time."

She looks down at his legs that hang outside of the car. She grabs them and tries to pull him out. Eyes pop open and look down straight ahead to see the smaller human woman tugging at his legs. He pulls his legs in while she hangs onto them and the second she gasps and lets go he wraps his legs around her.

Aurelia plants her foot at the base of the car frame and pushes back preventing him from pulling her in any further. Her heart races even more so when she sees him sitting up and grabbing her from the waist. In she goes as she tries to get free, "You left me... to die." She said quietly in anger.

He grins. "You tried to get rid of me. At any rate I knew you'd make it here just fine."

He keeps one arm around her and the other works to adjust her legs. He forces her to sit in his lap and pulls her down as she continues to retaliate, "I'm smelly, sweaty... as gross as a human can get. I bathed in my own sweat."

"Alright."

He has her sitting on her knees in his lap as her legs surround his waist. His hands release her waist. Aurelia watches him in uncertainty. "Alright? What do you mean?"

His face reveals no emotions. "Okay so... I'm going to get on that side and sit." She stands on her knees watching him as she leans over to the driver's side and places her left knee next her right. She lifts up the arm rest to get it out of the way and starts to crawl to her seat. He liked the shorts she was wearing seeing that it showed off her shape better. Aurelia yelps as she's yanked back to his lap again.

Knock Out's hand covers her mouth to prevent her from making any more audible sounds. "You want the Eradicons to find us?" She shakes her head no. He lets go and his arms loosely rest in her lap. "You feel damp."

"I told you I showered in my own sweat. It soaked up my clothes too. I feel so disgusting."

"Yes you _are_ disgusting." He made an unpleasant expression.

"And I'm going to sweat some more sitting on you. Just a warning not a threat."

"Then take off your clothes."

"No."

"You should leave them out in the sun to evaporate all the moisture." He reasons.

"That's true. And I have towels in the back that I could wrap myself in."

Knock Out's face faltered at her consistency to keep covered. She gets up out of his lap and as she walks to the trunk she hears him speak. "We have unfinished business to discuss."

"Like what? Hey, promise you won't peek."

"Only if you cooperate."

She walks back to him. "I don't completely trust you and you know it."

He shrugs, "Then I'll be a peeping tom as you humans would say."

"Why are you so difficult?"

"And you are not?"

Aurelia crosses her arms leaning her weight on one leg.

"What's the big deal? I've seen you in your panties... once." He researched it among other things.

Aurelia shakes her head thinking how uncomfortable it was to hear that word come from him. "W-well yeah, because you refused to get dressed when Lucile was coming. What's going on Knock Out? Did you succeed in something with Lucile that day for you to be acting so strange? How about today? She's more fun than I am."

Knock Out's face remained serious. "Nothing for you to be concerned about. What? You wished it was you instead?"

She comes closer and swings her hand at his face. It never made contact. "Don't insult me." She said with all her held back rage that she could detain. He grips her wrist tighter and pulls her in to be sat on his lap for the third time.

"I should be fragin' pissed at you for what you did during your break... but it wasn't like you were leaving me out in the desert or anything like that."

'Bastard!' Aurelia sits there stiffened as she feels his finger trace up her spine. "If I were to kill you I'd probably go about dislocating your head, and pulling it out along with your spine."

"You're threatening me?" She breathed. Aurelia prays to God Knock Out won't kill her today. Then again she thinks about how much of neat freak he is and finicky.

"Take it however you'd like."

"Why waste your time here with me? You're close to being back to your old self." At that very moment Aurelia felt like the burdensome load would soon be gone forever.

"There's no guarantee they would have the solution. Precaution is needed, and I need to get to Breakdown first."

"Where is he?" She tells herself she needs hold back from the questions. She didn't want to be too plainly eager. There could be a chance for Knock Out to delay all of this to simply make her suffer. It may be too late to cover the obvious.

"He's not in."

"How would you know? Have you-"

"Yes I've scoped the place already. Oh, by the way I wanted to show you something."

He reaches behind his back pulling out a camera. Aurelia sits there uncomfortably and suddenly sees an LCD screen in her face. Knock Out presses the playback button and scrolls through the pictures. Aurelia tries to snatch the camera from him but he's too quick for her.

"Delete them all." She ordered. 'Good Lord I look awful in those.'

"Ah – ahhh. I will do no such thing." Knock Out views more images. "I'm a pretty good photographer."

"Lets go find Breakdown."

"Calm down. We'll get moving once it's sundown."

"Aren't you practically suffering being a human... being."

"Life _is_ suffering."

Aurelia huffs at his statement. "Well aren't you mature." She mocks.

"Let's take a picture."

"What for?" She said most gloomily wishing him to be gone already. She decides to make more suggestions.

"I have a better idea. How about _you_ sneak onto that ship and wait for _your_ friend... Breakdown." She didn't care anymore how upfront she was being.

"That would not be wise."

"Why not?"

"There is no way to be sure that Nemesis will not take a trip into space. I don't know if I'll survive in this human form."

Aurelia sighs aloud at all these obstacles. So close yet so far. Knock Out glares at the back of her head. "So sorry. You almost got rid of me. What a shame."

"Stop rubbing it in." She moped leaning forward and resting her head in her propped up arms.

Knock Out shakes with laughter enjoying to see her suffering. He quickly quiets down not wanting to grab the Eradicon's attention. He puts the camera away and looks at her hair. He tugs the at the ends of her hair but not too harshly. Aurelia didn't bother to shoo him away as she continues to sulk.

The sun sets and Aurelia struggles to get the car started. "Not now. Come ooon." The two are back to being fully dressed and to Knock Out's disappointment he didn't get to see what he wanted. Aurelia keeps trying to turn on the car not wanting to walk in the colder temperatures of the desert. The ignition starts up and the motor runs much to Aurelia's relief. "I don't know why you want to head back to my place. Wouldn't you rather be around Lucile?"

She makes the car turn left and heads back into the dirt path. "Could you not mention her?" He said in an irritable voice.

"Mm?"

"Here's the thing pet. I don't care for your friend in any way whatsoever."

Aurelia's eyebrow twitched at being called pet. "She annoys you doesn't she."

"Pretty much."

"What'd you do to her?" Concern was evident in her voice.

"No worries." Knock Out takes another picture of Aurelia. "She is unharmed."

"Would you stop that already! I hate getting my pictures taken and you're blinding me with the stupid flash. Can't you take pictures of yourself since you're so... stuck on you?"

"Oh I have." He looks through the display seeing he has hundreds already.

"Could you return my camera to its place? Please?"

"No."

Aurelia was feeling that headache coming on. "Why? What now?"

"I'm not done with it."

"_Okaaay?_"

"We're going to the car show."

"Oh no _I'm_ not. I 'll take you there and I promise to stay in the parking lot. I won't leave the place."

"I won't take your word on that. You're coming in and that's final."

"What's so great about having me for company?"

Knock Out breathes out harshly. "Just do it."

"If you want me along so bad then be polite about it." Aurelia knew that arguing with him about how dirty she was won't convince him any. He simply didn't care for appearance at this instant.

Knock Out ponders her request for a moment. "I would like for you to accompany to the car show."

Aurelia glances at him thoroughly surprised he said something close to politeness. She was willing to press for it some more. "You didn't say the polite word."

"Pushy aren't you? Alright then." Aurelia was wishing he wouldn't. She didn't care for car shows in the first place. She avoids them.

"I would like for you to _please_ accompany to the car show." He struggled a bit with the polite word. It sounded foreign coming from him.

"No."

His jaw clenched as his anger boiled. Aurelia starts laughing seeing how angry he has become. "S-sorry. Hahahaha." She clears her throat and tries to sustain her laughter.

"You shouldn't laugh." He warns.

Aurelia's body continues to shake but finally has it under control. "I'm sorry I didn't mean no... I accept."

"You do realize that I could have forced you into this. I didn't have to ask."

Aurelia knew he was right. "And you probably didn't plan on telling me anything about it either. So whatever."

"Great. So it's a date." He said in a much more pleasant tone.

"WHAT?"

It was Knock Out's turn to laugh.

"Hey that's not funny! No. This is no date! No no no no no." Knock Out shakes with laughter at her panic.

"Your friend helped explain what the human dating was like." He laughs yet again.

"Oh... this is not a date I hope you know. The hell you would date a human! Or take one seriously for that matter. This applies with me and aliens."

"Of course." Knock Out smiles broadly with white teeth showing.

She wasn't sure what he means to say. "What's with the grin Knock Out?"

Aurelia looks at him once more before deciding to ignore it. "Ahhh, I'm so freaking tired! I just want some more sleep. Maldito, maldito, maldito Knock Out!" (Damn you, damn you, damn you Knock Out!)


	5. Chapter 5

...

**A/N: Slight warning.**

….

Knock Out's eyes seemingly dilate as they take in all those shiny well crafted curves and corners. He ignores the human femme models that currently show off their bodily parts near or in front of the cars which worked his nerves. Aurelia looks at the shades he's wearing. '_C__an't __believe __I __still __have __them._' She sees how distracted he has been by looking at the vehicles. She sees this as a chance to slip away without having him angrily demanding her to stay put. She slowly limps from Knock Out and makes her way to a chair she has been eying in the distanced, which is a good ways away from the red-head.

She looks down at her injured ankle that remains black and blue. "Such an ass!" She said under her breath. She works her way around the crowd excusing her presence as she squirms through and finally goes to sit down in a semi-comfortable chair. After getting comfortable she looks around seeing a variety of vehicle models and women modeling. "Tch. Man's world." She had felt nervous entering the place not only because of the crowd or the unfamiliarity of the place, it was a vibe.

Her eyes tend to land on the unusual looking cars which she concludes to be concept cars. Being here reminds her of her father. Aurelia came to terms with the loss of her father years ago and reflects on the memories that come to her mind. Breaking from the memories she looks to her left seeing a square table supporting a couple of car magazines. She has been feeling strangely jittery for a different reason. Her shaky hand reaches for the first magazine lying there but it moves away. She blinks and looks up to see him stand there. Her heart picks up speed and her mouth hangs slightly open.

The taller man smiles broadly as his green eyes observe her. He raises an eyebrow at her waiting for her to say something. Aurelia's lips thin out in dislike.

"Huh. You're still the same." She said spitefully, "What are you doing here?" She watches his smile reveal his white teeth as he runs a hand through his light brown hair. He wears black slacks with a blue dress shirt and a black tie. Admittedly, the man was as handsome as she last remembered him.

"Why so glum?" His masculine voice rang with a slight accent. The sound of it made her shiver slightly and she does her best to prevent showing the affect he has on her. She was wishing she was dressed and groomed at her best to prove she was more than just dandy.

"What?" Her heart beat never slowed down.

"Heh. Yeaaah. So, how've you been?" He knew this was going to be awkward between them. He spotted her in the distance as she sat there and he debated whether to come up to her or not. He knew this wasn't starting off so well and questions himself why he was even bothering with her in the first place.

He looks down at her darkened ankle. "How'd that happen?" He bends down to examine it but as he reaches for it Aurelia quickly pulls her ankle away, tips of his fingers only graze it.

"Sorry about that." He straightens up seeing that she's going to be difficult with him.

"Have you gotten my text messages a few weeks ago?" She looks at him remembering them, "No." She swallows dryly, "Why would you bother to text me?" She tries to calm herself trying not to give him any satisfaction. She takes a swig of her water bottle.

"Guess you changed your number. Listen, I was trying to get a hold of you to see how you were."

"I'm fine thanks." She mustered calmness much to her surprise. He stuffs his hands in his pant pockets and shrugs his shoulders. From his standing distance he examines her slightly messy hair, bags underneath her eyes, cheeks sunken in a little, and complexion much paler from what he last remembered. Aurelia sits there tensely waiting for him to go away. She found his actions strange. Not quite like him.

"Anyone in your life recently?" He interrupted her thoughts as she looks back at him.

"Any what?"

"Any guy swept you off your feet lately?" He sees her thinking again. "I guess not if you're thinking that hard about it."

Aurelia sees him turn around and walk away. Her body releases the tension.

"Be right back." The tension returns after hearing those words.

'_The __hell __does __he __want?__Rub __it __in __my __face __some __more?__Why __am __surrounded __by __jerks!_'

She sees him walking uncomfortably with a chair in one hand. She groans inwardly, '_Just __go __away!_' her mind screams. She tells herself if she paid attention she could have pulled off a lie to get him to maybe go away. He settles the chair next to her and she scoots away from him. He sits down and charms her with a smile that to had an effect on her long ago.

"What are you playing at?" Aurelia cuts through the bull wanting him to be straight forward.

"Okay. I... I wanted to first off apologize for the past. Can't we let bye-gones... you know?"

Aurelia crosses her arms and leans back into her chair. "Yeah. It has been put past behind me long ago."

"I don't believe you. Look at how you're acting right now." He notices her body grow more rigid.

"What do you want from me?" She did not care for any of this.

"Your forgiveness."

"You have it."

"Nooo." He laughs at the obvious, "I know I don't. You just want to get rid of me. You want me out of your sight."

She couldn't lie about that one. He then suggests, "How about we discuss this over dinner?"

She snorts, "I don't want to discuss this any further. It's been three years? Who cares now." She sees his face suddenly go sullen. '_He shouldn't be the one feeling down about it.'_ She turns away from him feeling that he may be sincere. Only a little. Her eyes search through the scattered crowds trying to locate Knock Out.

She hears the man sighing sadly. She rolls her eyes at his poor attempt, "For Christ's sake... you have my forgiveness." The handsome man perks up and looks at her for assurance. Aurelia sighs, "It just stings a bit that's all."

He ignores her sarcasm to her last comment and doesn't stop looking at her. Aurelia stares back but her concentration goes to his dimpled smile, "I've always liked your smile." Her eyes grew wide. The sudden words mistakenly left her mouth. She purposely bit her tongue for letting that one slip.

He laughs a bit at her unexpected compliment. Green eyes travel down. "I still like your-"

She holds up her hand to silence him. "Shut up. I don't want to hear it. Please. If you didn't bother to mean it in the past... why start now?" She was starting to blush at his open stare.

"Sorry." He holds up a hand in surrender meaning he meant no harm. "I was going to say I liked your shoes." He laughs a little knowing that's not all he was planning to say. "How about that dinner? Tonight maybe?"

She looks around again trying to see where that alien disappeared to. "You're pushing it."

"It's not a date. You sure you've forgiven me?" He asked warily watching her as she's obviously searching for someone. "Who are you looking for?"

"Cousin." Came her short reply.

"Didn't know you had relatives living here?"

"Me either." She stands up and limps away from him.

"H-hey! Let me help you out." He stands next to her grabbing her forearm. She snatches it away.

"Maybe not." He needed to be patient with her, he reasoned. He slowly walks next to her as she limps which made him look bad in front of other people throughout the crowd. "Can't you call your cousin?" He griped at her stubbornness.

"He doesn't have a cell phone."

"Weird."

"I'm surprised you're not here with a woman or two. Now that's weird." They both stand in the scattered crowd. She sees someone in a gray suit coming their way. "Don't exaggerate. Would it be impossible to say I've changed?"

She gives a chortled, bitter laugh, "Yeah. Afraid so. Honestly, I don't know how I caught your eye in the first place. It shouldn't have lasted as long as it did... or gone as far as it did. I should've known better." Her shoulders slump, "Guess we were both fools. Mainly me.", her voice sounded distant. He looks at her feeling a little insulted but he mostly felt bad for the way she said that.

A suited man goes to Aurelia greeting her. "Ah, I'm very pleased you made it." The man had a Scottish accent. He shakes her hand in gladness as they exchange names. "Where's the other gentleman?" He questioned as he looks at the taller one next to her. "Who might this be?"

"Oh... uh he's an old acquaintance. The other one is here but I can't find him." She looks around again getting fed up not being able to find Knock Out. The taller man glares at her for how she introduced him which really wasn't much of an introduction.

"Hello." The Scotsman warmly greets the taller companion, "The name's Leathan McGuier."

"Nice to meet you Leathan. My name's Matteo Vinci."

"Italian descent evidently. Yes?" Matteo nods.

Leathan looks at Aurelia's less neat appearance from this morning, "Aurelia. How are you liking the show?"

"Oh it's great! You have a lot of selections here. It's amazing." She wasn't lying. There were all sorts of eye candy here.

"Do you have a favorite?"

"Umm. Well there's... so many incredible cars here I wouldn't know where to begin."

Leathan comes closer to Aurelia. "Do you give me permission to whisk you away? I'd like to personally show you around."

"Uhhh." She was a little uneasy by the sudden offer. She looks at Matteo who also looks at the man in suspicion.

"Hey Leathan. You wouldn't mind me taggin' along would ya?"

"No, no not at all." Matteo notices how the Scotsman gave a slight frown but quickly recovers into a smile. Aurelia looks at Matteo whose scrutinizing glare is aimed at the man holding onto her arm.

"Come this way." Leathan puts Aurelia's hand onto his arm as an escort. She could feel some muscles underneath the fabric of his arm. Leathan quickly notices that she's limping. "What happened?" He looks at her ankle in alarm.

"I twisted my ankle."

"You should have said something. No problem, we can solve that." He pulls out his phone, makes a few requests, and seconds later a golf-cart arrives. "We can tour around with this."

"Oh! Thank you! Maybe we can find my cousin along the way." Matteo watches her mood grow lighter and her body less tense. He figures that she found the Scottish stranger more comfortable to be around than he was. He mentally questions as he watches her thanking the Scotsman for the additional aid to her ankle.

Aurelia gratefully puts the ice pack onto her ankle to which Leathan provided as they both sit in the back of the golf cart. Matteo, much to his discontent, sits in the front next to the driver. Leathan starts pointing out to each automobile they pass by and rants about each of the vehicles' performance along with added lengthy information.

Aurelia can take oh so much of the information and she quickly becomes bored with the whole thing as she reapplies the ice pack. Her eyes remain on alert to spot any red head wearing a tight black shirt and gray jeans. She thinks about how Knock Out would love to have conversations with Leathan. The Scotsman eventually turns his attention back to Matteo who truly found the information more intriguing than Aurelia did.

'_These __men __only __have __pity __for __me.__ Where the hell did Knock Out go?_' The antsy feeling returns to her as she simply wants to grab Knock Out and get out of here away from the two men. Particularly Matteo, he stirs a renewed feeling within her. As much as she disliked Knock Out and all the suffering he has put her through, she would rather be around him than Matteo.

Speaking of the devil, she finally spots him and sees he's ignoring the woman next to him who obviously has an immediate infatuation for Knock Out. Yes, the woman looked like she could be a model. She too had red hair and fair skin. Knock Out's attention goes to the mechanics of the vehicle. The hood was open for all to see its wonders.

"Do you own any special cars?" The red-head woman continues to try and catch his attention. She gets tired of being ignored so she grabs his face turning it towards her. "Hey there." She said with a serious face. Knock Out being caught off guard glares at the human femme who dares interrupt him.

He grabs her hands with a strong grip and roughly pulls them away. The woman opens her pretty red lips readying herself to retort at his unnecessary handle on her. Knock Out is caught off guard again as he sees the familiar femme pull his hands away from the pretty red-head, Aurelia. "You seem to have impeccable timing to saves these femmes from my wrath."

Knock Out retrieves his arms from Aurelia's grasp. He notices her pained expression. "Ah... Yeah, tell me about it. So much for promises huh? Okay. We should go now."

He seethes in her face, "For once I'll agree to this. Humans spoil my mood."

Aurelia backs away and turns around to see the red-head fuming. Aurelia holds out her hands in apology. "I'm sorry he doesn't like his face being touched." She turns her head for a moment to look at Knock Out who is walking away, "And he's um, not in a good mood. We're leaving. Now."

"That was uncalled for! There was no need for manhandling me you fu-"

Aurelia's hand quickly found its way on the woman's mouth and looks around seeing the attention they were receiving. Aurelia understood the red-head's anger. Again she apologized as the woman pushed Aurelia's hand aside. Aurelia takes a couple of backward steps, "I apologize for that."

"Don't touch me you bitch!"

Aurelia stares at her wide eyed then they narrow and her mouth frowns at the woman. Her fists begin to tighten up. She stomps forward ready to let the woman have it. The pain she felt in her ankle was forgotten. Aurelia felt someone pull her back by the arms. Aurelia flailed against her captor. She looks down at the black shoes and she stomps her sharp heel on to it and twists it side to side, digging deep. A gurgled, held back yell was heard behind her.

Her held back arms become free and she moves steadily forward to her target who is currently held back by Leathan. "Ungrateful whore! I am trying to save your ass from getting pummeled into the ground!" Aurelia almost screamed at her. The crowd around her was cheering on for a cat fight. How immature.

Aurelia felt herself being pulled back again but this time the person picks her up settling her in the unknown arms. She saw her surroundings move around. Her eyes look at her captor, Knock Out. Still angry, Aurelia calms herself down not bothering with the indignant woman. Realizing what she had just done Aurelia groans aloud feeling exhaustively embarrassed at the unnecessary behavior and ruckus.

She covers her face with her hands mentally scolding at herself for the childish act. This wasn't her. She starts to blames it on her nerves, stress, and disappointment she has seemingly felt all day. She looks back around Knock Out's shoulder to see Matteo standing outside of the crowd tending his foot. He looks up to give Aurelia a serious look. She couldn't decipher it. She mouthed an apology for his foot. His mouth moved but she couldn't read it at the distance she was now.

An officer walks up to them, "What's the problem?"

"Nothing sir. We're leaving." Aurelia replied.

"I have orders to escort you both all the way to your car."

No one uttered a word as they finally reached the black Dodge. The officer took Aurelia's information and stood aside watching them settle into their seats. They drive out of the parking lot. Knock Out sits in the driver's seat; wordlessly he decided to drive this time. "Next time don't get in the way."

Aurelia sits quietly and makes no confirmation to his request. She blankly stares outside into the starry night. "I would've enjoyed seeing you fight her. But I think she would have handed over your aft."

Knock Out glances at her thinking she has had a very long day. His pet desperately needs sleep and he was willing to let her to have it. She's no fun like this. They arrive home and Aurelia slowly limps her way to the living room, the usual place where she sleeps. She feels herself being lifted up again. With immediate irritation she sighs in frustration and thrashes within his arms.

She didn't want to be involved in anything dealing with the sense of touch. He holds her firmly. "No! This is against my will!"

Knock Out had other plans, "You need a shower."

Aurelia panics, "No way am I letting you see me naked!"

He looks down at her and smirks as if he was challenging it. She responds to his smirk by struggling again. Knock Out squeezes his hold on her. "Would you calm down!"

"Heeell no!" She wailed.

Annoyed, he puts her down making her face him as he holds her by the shoulders. Her face reveals pain and limps in place as she breathes in sharply. He looks down to see her black and blue ankle. "When did that happen?"

"Wow... I've had the injury when I found you _still_ in my car _out_ in the freakin' desert."

"Oh." Feeling a bit dense for not noticing, it should have clicked seeing that she was walking strangely. "Being human has dulled my senses quite a bit."

"You shouldn't excuse yourself like that just because you're human. You really don't pay attention." She pauses to think about it, "Actually, you don't care." She sighs tiredly and yawns, "Doesn't matter... Going to shower now."

She removes his hands from her shoulders and limps into the bathroom leaving Knock Out to stand there and watch. The top lid of the toilet seat closes, Aurelia sits on it and pulls off her left shoe. She hisses in pain, "God... I wish I'd remember to take the ice pack with me."

She massages her ankle carefully. Knock Out watches her pained expression return. She shakes off some of the remaining sand in her shoe and further examines her ankle, "Hey. Do me a favor... can you check in the freezer for an ice pack? Please." She takes off her other shoe and notices that no answer ever came from him. She looks at the door frame, he was no longer there. "Great. Should've known."

Aurelia slowly puts her foot on the floor again. Struggling, she grabs the surrounding walls for support and manages to stand up, she takes a step and limps. She takes another step and stops at the sound of rustling plastic. "I also found this." Knock Out holds up her first aid kit. Gasping quietly in surprise she smiles weakly, "Thank you."

Knock Out watches how her eyes droop. He sets the items on the counter of the sink and rushes to her as she falls forward. Aurelia mutters sleepily. He carefully lowers her to the floor and has her lie on her back. He sits on the floor next her and eyes her organic body. "Humans... so inferior." Now that he was in a calm state he observes her theorizing she looked alright for a human female.

He noticed that humans have similarities to his kind in the basic structure. Although, his kind have a more complex exterior compared to that of the humans. Knock Out starts to fiddle with the strands of her hair. The human females tend to have this longer than the males, he noted. He then grabs her hand and looks at her five fingers. He flattens her hand against his. "Smaller frame." He said to himself.

"Hmmm..." Knowing that she may not be fully unconscious he unbuttons her blazer. He carefully lifts her back from the floor getting the blazer off of her. He pulls back to see if she is conscious. Next, he pulls off her shirt and his nose crinkled at the odor she was emitting. Her face looked shiner than normal too. '_Ugh... you humans secrete too much oil._' His thought is that the oil only helped in softening and conditioning the skin.

His hand glides over her ribs and slightly downward. Humans strive for comfort. He quickly discovered that after the first day of being human. He looks toward the tub remembering his first encounter with human femme. He chuckles remembering her wide eyes full of fear. His pet looked tired today so he decides to help her shower at least. First things first, get her completely undressed. He remembered being in those wet shorts. It was quite uncomfortable.

He is only helping in reducing that discomfort. Or so he tells himself. Lucile, he recalls how she reached behind her back to undo her bra but she never finished because of the interruption. Knock Out looks down at her black, lace bra. He reaches behind her and starts to pull and tug on it. He grew frustrated with it and blindly feels around for some indication to release it.

He feels the clasps which were made of a different material and tugs on it. He maneuvers Aurelia to where some of her back was more exposed to him. "Ahh... I see now." He uses both hands and successfully releases the bothersome thing. He returns her to her original position. He examines her face pleasantly surprised she had not awaken.

Her bra lies loosely covering her chest. He manages to get the remaining clothes off and she lies there in her underwear. He too undresses figuring he would get wet in the process of bathing her. He sits there in his boxer staring at her body. He sighs aloud scoffing at himself for regaining that feeling again. His heart pulsates fast. "Slag! Seriously... can't wait to be me again."

This strong feeling makes Aurelia look very attractive. He couldn't believe himself. This was the second time today. He ruffles his hair in frustration. He decides to keep her in her underwear. He didn't even want to try and imagine what she looked like without anything on. He has seen plenty of the nude female form on TV, magazines, and the internet. Yes, he could imagine.

He goes to turn on the knobs of the bathtub and feels that the temperature is just right. Knock Out goes to Aurelia who still unconscious and picks her up in his arms. He cringes at the thought of her reaction when she wakes up. He couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

He dips her into the filled tub and watches her face for a reaction. He hears her hum which startles him to proceed any further. After a few seconds he finishes with placing her in the tub. "Slag..." He forgot to fasten her bra and it floats away from her chest. His breath goes ragged. "What the frag... they're not even _that_ big compared to her friend."

Quickly he grabs a loofa pouring body wash onto it scrubs her body as fast as he can. He grabs the shampoo and conditioner sloping them onto her hair. He scrubs her head thoroughly. "Disgusting." He saw how dirty the water had gotten. He unplugs the tub and watches the water drain form around her. Dirt and grim lingered on the floor of the bathtub. He turned on the water and sets it to where the water runs through the shower head.

This time for sure he too was going to get wet. He rinses her and gets into the tub and he too starts to shower his head and body. Scattered splats of water hit Aurelia's face. She becomes conscious of the sound of running water. The splatter of water was annoying to her and she wipes her face. She opens her eyes to discover someone standing there with his broad back facing her and in boxers.

She was in utter shock and looks down to see herself only in underwear and gasps in utter horror. Knock Out unaware of her state continues to rinse his hair. In the meantime Aurelia slowly tries to get out of the tub but slips in the process alarming him of her. He snaps back to see her stare at him with her mouth hanging open.

She resumes with her escape. "Hey! Wait!" She gets halfway over the tub but Knock Out reels her back in making her sit down. He crouches down near her. Aurelia feeling super hot in the face tries to cover his eyes with her hands. "Don't look at me!"

"You're making this into a big deal!" He yanks her hands away from his eyes. "You're not even that pretty."

Aurelia's jaw tightened at his insult but she prefer that he wasn't attractive to her in any way. Her hands try to cover her most embarrassing parts. She notices her bra felt unusually loose. She sees that it wasn't covering her chest area properly. "Oh gawd..." She sits on her knees and turns her back to him and refasten her bra.

Knock Out has turned off the water and turns to see Aurelia's back is turned to him. Never in his entirety would he think to ever come to like the curves of the human femme. Curse this male human body. '_No. Not that pretty._' He was denying he liked her back view.

Aurelia stumbles out of the bathtub not bothering to scream at him like she wanted to. She runs out with a towel covering her as she wraps it tightly around her feeling insecure. She's dripping wet while leaving droplets to follow behind her. "You know, you could have thanked me!"

"For what? Stripping me!" She yelled back angrily. She wanted to cry out of humiliation but resists the urge to do so. She goes to her room to dry and dress herself. He quietly laughs. "No! For cleaning you!" After a while he hears nothing from her.

Knock Out dries himself and decides to lay on the couch leaving Aurelia alone in the bedroom. His ears listen to the crickets outside making sounds tonight. He suddenly hears a low frequency sound off within his ears. He sits up in anticipation, hand touching the side of his ear.

Static-like sound is heard, "Co- min... Kno- kk ot..." He stands up hearing the barely audible voice. "T-This is Knock Out. Can you hear me? Come in!"

Eagerly he tries again, "Come in!" Static is the only response for one minute straight as he paces around the house. He then heads outside to the back of the house hoping for a better signal response. "Slag!"

Later on a loud knock is heard. Aurelia quickly steps out of the bedroom barely finished with pulling down her shirt. She slowly walks to the front door while she continues towel drying her hair. The loud knocking continued. "Who is it now?" She grumbled irritably.

She tries standing on her tip toes to see through the hole. She is unable to see anyone. She tries to peek through the window nearest to the door. Aurelia sighs heavily. Reluctantly she opens the door with a fast beating heart, "What do you want?"

"Good thing you still live here." He steps forward in slight pain. "You dug a hole in my shoe. I think you have to make it up to me."

She looks down to see he was correct to say so, and looks back up to observe his face, "Matteo... I know you probably couldn't tell but I apologized to you. I really am sorry."

"Great that you're sorry, but this pair was one of my favorites." His face expressed annoyance.

"I really don't have money to compensate you." She continues to have her towel lie on top of her head obscuring some of her face. "You look you have more than enough money." Her eyes look behind him to see his parked Mercedes in her driveway.

"That's okay." Aurelia heard him say and she gave him a hesitant, small smile seeing that his face relaxed some.

"But you're going to have that dinner with me and we're going to talk." He takes a couple of more steps towards her. Aurelia's eyes narrow, she limps back and slams the door in his face.

"Hey! Open the door!" Matteo called out angrily.

"I don't like it when men demand things!"

Matteo sighs, "Aurelia..." he called out softer this time. "We should talk."

Aurelia's heart pulsates faster. "Please." She hears his muffled voice. She breaths in deeply and struggles to put on her black sneaker-like shoes. She turns the door knob with shaky hands and slowly opens the door.

"We can talk right now." Aurelia said crossing her arms watching him.

"Fine." He is about to step into her house but Aurelia stops him.

"Not inside. We can sit at that bench there." She points to her front porch located near her door. Matteo nods in agreement.

Aurelia limps to the bench refusing Matteo's attempted help. Her one leg supporting most of the weight was starting to get tired. "What do you need to talk about?"

Aurelia suspects something up Matteo's sleeve. "I don't really know where to start. I'm not prepared."

"You're wasting your time here." Aurelia looks straight forward.

"It looks like you've changed. Like you're... more violent."

She laughs then clears her throat, "About earlier today... I've been stressing lately so I'm not myself."

"Trouble paying the bills? Trouble at work? Guy trouble?"

Aurelia shakes her head. "Don't wanna talk about it. Just say what you have to Matteo. I'm tired."

"I'm having regrets."

"Don't pity me."

"I'm not. Not really."

"What then?" Aurelia's eyes close for a moment. She feels the towel drop behind her head.

"Did you ever wonder about me?" He stares at her closed eyes.

"Sometimes but you hardly went through my mind. What's your point?" Her eyes now open looking down at her hands nervously.

"I've thought about you. I was really surprised to see you today."

Aurelia snorted, "Yeah me too... surprised that is. Thought you moved away like you kept saying you would."

"I guess something just kept me here."

She looks at him skeptical, "I seriously doubt it's me."

"It sure wasn't."

"Wasn't?"

He swallows dryly, "Yeah."

"Matteo... what are you trying to do? You feel bad for how our past relationship was? Is it... that you're trying to renew a relationship?" Her eyebrows furrow at him.

"Yeah... possibly." He said slowly.

Aurelia laughs bitterly, "Gaawd... No." She breathes in deeply, "You broke it off and thank you for that by the way." She pauses and then proceeds in a quiet tone, "Now you're here to try and take back what you didn't really want? What you threw aside?"

"Ouch. You kinda made yourself sound like a disposable object."

"I felt like that sometimes." She said with slight anger.

Matteo rubs the back of his head. "I... I was an ass."

"And more but that doesn't matter. You and I are not meant to be." Aurelia stands up and heads to the front door. Matteo isn't far behind, "Leaving already?"

"There's nothing else to talk about. Goodnight Matteo."

He grabs her arm making her stop. "Did you miss me?" He steps closer to her her back. She can now hear his steady breathing.

She continues to look straight ahead, "At the very beginning yes but lately, no."

He leans in closer to the side of her face, "Are you being honest Aurelia... with yourself?"

She takes a step forward gaining some space, "Yeah." She whispered lowly. "I don't think I could commit to someone like you for the rest of my life."

That comment struck him and now he's angry, "I don't do begging." He does his best to contain himself, "I'll leave you alone. I hope this is what you want."

Matteo turns around to leave. He hears the door open rather fast and looks back to see a red-haired man talking to Aurelia. "_Good __news_." The man said. "We have a lead. Let's go." The red-haired man hurriedly grabs Aurelia's arm a little too roughly and pulls her much to her limping protest. "H-hey! My ankle?"

Her legs give out and she falls forward onto her knees scraping it in the process. She gasps out in pain. Matteo felt a little better seeing Aurelia get hurt but he quickly goes to her side to help her. Again, she refuses his help and pushes him away in anger and embarrassment.

She sits there taking a look at her slightly bloody knees. The thin cloth had shredded some and stuck to her flesh. She tries to pull at cloth but it hurt too much. "You alright?" Matteo questioned from his crouched position near to her.

"I'm fine." Aurelia said unhappily.

Knock Out comes close to Aurelia and lowers himself to grab her. She already has outstretched arms trying to fight him back, but he successfully gathers her quickly in his arms. "It hurts!" He ignores her retort and stands to his full height never letting her go and looks at the stranger. "Another friend of yours?" He questioned staring at the taller man.

"Y-Yeah sort of." She mumbled.

"I'm her ex-fiancé." Came Matteo's correction. Knock Out quirks an eyebrow at him and glances at Aurelia who starts to feel a blush creep through. '_Fianc__é__?_'

"You shouldn't treat her so roughly." Matteo spoke.

Knock Out looks back at Matteo, "Who are you to tell me how to treat my pe-"

Aurelia soundly smacks him in the chest. Knock Out glares at her for the rude interruption and gives her a rough squeeze where his hands remain.

"Ignore my cousin." Aurelia glares right back at him, "He..." Aurelia's face crinkles at the pain his hands were causing, "...has always been rude."

"You never talked about him. Probably your least favorite relative." Matteo pondered. Aurelia shrugged her shoulders as a response. He witnessed how they interacted with each other minutes ago. Aurelia didn't look too comfortable with the red-head and he seemed so careless with her.

Matteo also thought how odd it was for the man to wear shades at night. The shades did look familiar. Aurelia decides to break Matteo's observation, "Good night."

Matteo nods his head getting the hint that she wants him gone already. For the shortest time he has witnessed her so called cousin, he guessed the cousin to be controlling kind, "You don't have to do what he says. If he gives you trouble, call me." The comment caused Knock Out scowl at the taller man.

"I won't have to but thanks." Aurelia fakes her calm demeanor.

"After all you don't like demanding men." Matteo grins at her and then leaves to his car. Aurelia felt Knock Out's grip grow tighter. She does her best to keep a straight face until Matteo drove away at a good distance. Aurelia squirms, "Ohmygod! It huuurts!" She starts to hit Knock Out in his chest, "Consider your ex-fiancé permanently offline the next time I see him."

"You're fingers are pinching into my nerves!"

He looks at her, "Did you hear what I said?"

"Ohmygod! Would you... just! Uuuhh!" Aurelia whines from the pain. Knock Out finally loosens his grip and carries her to the car. The two are settled in and Knock Out starts up the car. "You are the most awful- _thing_ I've ever met!" She cried out.

Knock Out chuckles, "Then you should have left me where you found me."

Aurelia responds softly, "You're right about that one." She rakes her hands through her damp hair, "Never thought you'd be some psycho alien robot."

He shrugs, "Meh." Aurelia notices how fast he's driving. "You should slow down... I don't wanna get a ticket."

"We've done this plenty of times. We haven't been caught yet my dear."

"Anyways, how did you get a lead? Do you know where you're going?"

"My communication is back online. Strangely I can read the coordinates right now."

Aurelia surprised by the news, "Really? That's… great!" Or so she thought. She couldn't help being a pessimist as she thinks about the many things that can go wrong. "Breakdown?"

"The one and only."

"Mm."

Knock Out glances at her, "Something wrong pet?"

"Mm. No."

"I'll soon be out of your hair. Shouldn't you be more happy? Excited?"

She laughs a little, "Yeah… you jerk you made my arm and thigh feel numb." She rubs her arm trying to regain feeling in it.

"Sorry about that pet."

She looks at him, "No you're not." He smirks at her. "Leave my ex alone."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why? Because he insulted you indirectly? He didn't even say that much. Besides, it's not like he was totally wrong."

"Trying to put me in a bad mood human?"

She watches his eyes narrow and his red irises move in her direction. "You don't have to drag me everywhere like I'm some child. And you really could have most of my cooperation hassle-free if you'd just ask and treat me nicer... but it depends on what it is."

She rubs her eyelids trying to make them feel better. "Is that how he got to you?"

Aurelia's breathing stifled. She stares at him quietly and slowly lowers her hands before answering, "That's none of your business."

She didn't want to admit it but Matteo's renewed interest in her has recaptured some of her feelings for him even though she's weary of him. Aurelia leans forward in her seat and tries to massage her upper back trying to loosen the uncomfortable tights knots caused by the stress. '_Don't be so stupid_', she tells herself. '_I'd never take him back._'

"Do you have a farewell gift for me pet?

"No." She replied quickly.

"You'll miss me. I know it." He smirks at her.

"No. Not even for a second." She crosses her arms and leans back into her seat. "Would you miss me?" She asked and glances at him not really caring but she was a little curious.

"Mmm. Maybe." She rolls her eyes reminding herself not take what he says so seriously. "I know you won't. I don't care."

"Since you don't have a farewell gift for me I have one in mind that you could give for me." He places his hand on her knee and rubs it. This was starting to scare Aurelia. _'Can't take him seriously.'_ Her heart beat never slows down. She couldn't convince herself. His hand slowly rises up her thigh. She abruptly stops his hand from going any further. She looks at him with that frightened look on her face. He isn't grinning nor smirking. His face and those red and black eyes look serious and dead-on his intent.

She looks out to the window reminding her he is driving very fast. Her heart beats loudly within her eardrums. She grabs her purse from the floor, releases her seatbelt, and she attempts to escape. Knock Out hurriedly grabs her arm in a tight grip and pulls her back in while he drives off road. He pulls the car into a screeching halt and parks it. Aurelia twists her arm free running as fast as she can.

Knock Out decides to run after her on foot. Aurelia looks back seeing him gain speed. She pumps her legs in desperation, despite her pain, hoping to outrun him. Hoping to tire him out. She runs along the roadside anticipating that vehicles would stop by and help.

She continues her blind run seeing no sign of life. They were very far away from civilization. She tries to dig into her purse trying to feel for her phone but she notices the action was quickly slowing her down. She stops her search and concentrates on running. Knock Out laughs evilly from behind her, "Just you wait, pet."

"Knock Out. Come in! What's taking so long?"

Breakdown could hear Knock Out's breathing pattern is different, "Hang on. I ran into a little problem. Might be a while. I'll get back to you."

…...

**A/N:** Not the best chapter I know. Hope it was interesting in the least. There are some strange format errors on this. Some of italics are not spacing the way they should.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Warning… for umm grossness. It's not— well read and find out.

* * *

><p>-o-o-o-<p>

The moonlight shined brightly, high in the sky. Aurelia felt every fiber of her muscles burn as she desperately runs away from the alien. She wasn't going to let him catch her even if it meant jumping off that cliff straight ahead. Taking lungful of air, she wheezes for she is pushing her body that much more. Knock Out sees her desperation but he plans to make sure she doesn't reach the other side of it. He grows anxious to catch her.

He found her to be an impressive runner but it could be her adrenaline aiding her. No matter, he quickly closes the distance on his frightened pet. He found this entertaining but he isn't planning on playing cat and mouse for hours. Aurelia looks back alarmed to see him come so closely to her. She makes a sharp turn to the right barely missing his hands. The turn took a good amount of energy out of her.

Aurelia knows she can't continue this forever but her human instinct for survival tells her otherwise. Knock Out manages to gain more speed, hot on her heels again. Aurelia feels his arms tightly wrapped around her upper body. Immediately, she feels herself incline forward to the desert ground by his weight. She was unable to stop the falling motion. They make impact against the ground and Knock Out causes them to roll in the compact desert sand until they come to a stop. Aurelia screams, "NOO! No!" She thrashes, kicks, and throws elbows struggling for her freedom.

Knock Out manages to grapple her in their lying position making it impossible for her to get free. She lies on top of Knock Out facing the night sky with his limbs trapping her trembling body. Aurelia continues to struggle with all her might. This continues for five minutes until Aurelia becomes quite worn out with the struggle. Her last input of her waning energy is screams of frustration that are carried over in echoes. No one can hear her cries for help.

Her fearful eyes continue to look straight ahead at the starry firmament praying for a miracle. _'__Anything would do... ANYTHING! Please God!_' The sound of crickets and labored breathing is audible in the lonely landscape. Knock Out hasn't said a word since he's tackled her but his mind cerebrates for the outcome to be favorable. She feels his arms and legs relax ever so slightly and she takes advantage. She jerks up to a sitting position and scrambles forward to get up. Knock Out yanks her back to him but this time he pins her down onto her back and straddles her.

Knock Out watches her bottom lip tremble, he then averts his attention to her frightened wide eyes, mildly sweaty face, and hair that is splayed out everywhere beneath her head. He suddenly laughs at how pitiful she looks. The sudden sound made her twitch. Knock Out lowers his head near the crook of her neck as she tries to crane her neck away from the closeness.

Her body shivers from the touch of his warm breath. She breathes in sharply, "Nggh!" His tongue made contact against her neck. Aurelia squeezes her eyes shut as she feels him drag it up to her jaw line. She tries to fight him off but he has pinned her arms straight above her head. He stops from going any further than her jaw, and whispers near her ear, "Now now pet. Let's make this enjoyable for the both of us. Hmm?"

Her breathing quickens, "Who said you'd like it with a human?"

"I won't know til' I try."

"W-Why?" She groans as she averts her face away from him.

He aligns his face with hers and grins, "To release this body's pent up tension."

She tries to put on a brave face and huffs at him, "H-Hah! What for? You're so close to getting back your original form."

"Mmm. Not quite pet. Remember?" He gathers her hands in one of his and holds them together tightly as she struggles. "Watch." His free hand hovers over her face. Aurelia now stares wide-eyed at his mechanical hand, no, his robotic arm. The transformation was so swift her eyes didn't catch all of the details. She looks away but Knock Out grabs her face with his robotic hand, startling her, and regaining her attention.

"I have only been able to transform both of my arms."

He lets go and begins to twist and turn his wrist which then transforms again, but this time into a drill-like weapon. Aurelia's eyes grew wider again. "What do you think?" He said as he lowers the drill near her face, making her squirm and heighten her fear. He pulls back his arms and laughs at her expected reaction.

"You're so much fun. Did you know that?" His now pointy digits graze her cheek then travels down her neck and stops at her chest. He gathers the fabric in his hand, digging in his pointers, and pulls it down tearing it along the way. Aurelia gasps sharply, "P-Please! Don't!"

He looks at her partially torn tank top, "You like to layer your clothes, don't you?" He tears the front of the tank top off causing Aurelia to thrash around in panic. She feels him pressing more of his body weight against hers to keep her still. She could feel his excitement for her and hears his voice deepen, "Pet. Don't make this more difficult than it has to be."

She breathes heavily, "T-Thought I w-wasn't pretty. Don't humans disgust you?"

"My processor tells me you're disgusting" He whispers, "but this human body says otherwise."

"So you're going to let…" She struggles to breathe, "An inferior flesh body…" She gasps for another moment to breathe, "Win over your superiority?" She starts to hyperventilation as the inhuman weight continues to lie on top of her.

He gives her some room to breathe and Aurelia coughs and inhales deeply for air to enter her deprived lungs. He gives her a wry look, "Truth be told, I've grown curious." He sits up and releases her numbed hands. She looks down to see her chest almost exposed. Knock Out sees her attempt to cover up some more but he forcefully pries her weakened arms apart.

He removes the tattered remains of her shirt and his robotic hand smoothes over her breast. The coolness of his metal hand causes the skin to tighten up. Aurelia grips at his wrist trying to pull the uncomfortable thing away. He grins at the strange reaction, "Maybe if they were bigger."

He lowers his mouth to take it in and sucks on it. "Stop! No! Ahhhh!" Aurelia, who is furious, pulls and scratches at his head then tugs at his hair, Knock Out bites her breast making her yell and grabs her arms bringing them to her sides. "Lemme' go! GET OFF OF ME!" Aurelia tries to maneuver her legs to help her out of this position. After a couple of attempts she finds out it is useless.

He bites down a little harder onto the softness which causes tears to well up in the corner of Aurelia's eyes. She screams in pain. Knock Out feels he's done enough damage and let's go of the soft mound as well as her arms to make quick work of her pants. "N-no!" Aurelia tries to close her thighs but his position over her makes it difficult. He sits on his knees and roughly pushes her thighs apart to look at her most intimate part. His red irises were magnetized to her exposed entrance. The second he tries to look away from it his eyes are jarred back to it. The feeling grew stronger, '_The __human __femmes __are __all __built __the __same.__'_ He angled his face to something that was seeping out.

Aurelia tries to sit up but she was faced with his drill again. She obediently laid back down. Aurelia felt something pooling out of her. She couldn't believe how her body was reacting to this, but it felt a little too much and a familiar dull pain. "What is that? Looks colored like…" Aurelia maintains her breath, '_Oh __my...__it __couldn't __be! __It __has __to __be...__ God __I __hope __it __is.'_ She starts to laugh strangely, catching Knock Out off guard and gaining his attention to her face. "What's so funny?" He murmurs suspiciously. "Why are you hurt?"

With that confirmation her trembling hands cover her mouth trying to muffle her laughter. Though she was feeling humiliated and horrified at the same time, she found this funny. _'I'm going insane!'_ Possibly because he wasn't going to be able to accomplish what he was after. A few seconds roll by as she quickly obtains her laughter under control and she finally speaks, "I-I'm… ha ha ha in pain b-but it's not what you're thinking."

"I haven't touched you there, yet you look like I've injured you already." She looks at his thoroughly confused face. He looks at his pointy digits seeing no blood on it. This triggers her laughter again. She tries to stop it not wanting to encourage him into making the situation more hostile than it is already.

Knock Out stares at her trying to think of what he's not understanding. She finally has it together somewhat and stares back at him with a serious expression, "I-I'm menstruating. It happens to all women every month." He only responds with silence as he looks back down to it with uncertainty. His hands go to her inner most joints, near the pelvis, pulling her quivering thighs further apart. She did not like being opened up like this. "Don't touch me there!"

Aurelia carefully examines his face trying to find an inkling of disgust written across it. To her disappointment he regards her bleeding entrance with more confusion than disgust. It was obvious that he does not understand what is happening to her nor does he know what to make of it. "Congratulations." He said out of nowhere startling Aurelia. She looks at him in puzzlement. "You've officially made the feeling gone."

Aurelia mentally screams in thankfulness to God for the strangest rescue. "Can you make it stop?" Her heart beats at his mild persistence. She speaks with an unsteady voice, "No. It lasts for about a week... and it only gets worse." She felt her face heat up quite a bit with a conversation she does not want to have. "Huh." Knock Out continues to stare.

"Please stop looking at it." She felt more than disgusting. No one was meant to see her like this. Not even her someday-husband if she were to ever live to see that day. He stands up and offers a hand to her. She refuses it and sits up turning her back to him to wrap her remaining tattered clothes around the bleeding source. Aurelia turns back around in her sitting position and stands up as she covers her chest with her arms and stands there hunched over.

Knock Out walks up closer to her. "I've already seen everything... except for all of your back side." As he said this he takes a quick look as she steps backwards trying to prevent him from viewing. "Now I've seen it all." He grabs her face making her look at him. "Could we try something else?" He smiles mischievously at her.

"You _dare_ and I won't hesitate to be the most disgusting human ever! _Especially __now_. Consequences be damned!" Her body shook as she stood there trying to cover herself. He was surprised by her sudden fury and regained confidence. He glares at her as he releases her face with a shove. He walks to the direction of the car with his hands stuffed in his pockets mumbling to the disappointing night.

His thoughts wander to how BreakDown never did say that there was a solution for his unfortunate predicament. Only theories were conducted and now his bad mood increases. He touches the side of his face and speaks, "Come in Breakdown."

Knock Out hears the frequency become louder and then he hears his partner's voice, "Yeah I hear ya' Knock Out. Where the frag are you!" Knock Out sighs before responding, "Apologies Breakdown. I'm on my way."

"You're going to get dents where you don't want 'em once you get here." Knock Out laughs but stops to think it could be true this time. The only thing is that there would be bruises rather than dents pounded into this organic flesh.

"How much longer til' you get here?"

Knock Out reads through his red irises, "According to my calculations... Mmm I'd say about half an hour if I haul aft."

"You've come to think in human terms... Well hurry up already."

"Will do. Out."

The two are back inside the car. Aurelia sits on a few towels she grabbed from the trunk and covers her upper body with a large sized one. It's quiet between them for the rest of the ride. Half an hour later they arrive to what appears to be an Energon site. Knock Out parks the car nearby and sees Breakdown in the distance. _'This will be odd and complicated.'_, was Knock Out's thought as he stared blankly at Breakdown.

Aurelia stared at Knock Out for a moment wondering why he wouldn't get out of the car already. "You should go." She interrupted his distant thoughts and he turns to look at her. "Yeah." She was confused why he didn't sound too optimistic in going. True, there was no assurance of his condition but he should be glad to rid himself of her and her human lifestyle.

"Give me your hand." Aurelia looks at him in obvious distrust.

"What for? You plan on a re-attempt in raping me?" She narrowed her eyes at him. Knock Out glares at her then gives a confident smirk. "Who are you fooling. I think you would've enjoyed it with me, pet. After all, you haven't had a sexual partner since your ex."

Aurelia's reaction to his assumption is shock. "Unbelievable! You assh-" She's interrupted by her surprise to see he has grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. "I'm correct to assume, am I not?"

She quickly retracts her hand and glares at him. "Only on the very last part of what you've said."

"You're quite the loyal one aren't you? That's attractive in a femme." She rolls her eyes at him, "Knock Out, g-go already." He could see and hear her nervousness. He visibly smirks at her knowing he's getting to her.

Knock Out hears BreakDown's loud voice, "What the frag Knock Out! Are you coming or what? I'm sure that's you in there with another human."

Aurelia looked confused at Knock Out's flinching expression. He responds to his partner, "I'm coming."

"You should terminate the human."

Knock Out looks at Aurelia quietly. "She's harmless."

This got Aurelia's attention, "What's going on... Knock Out?"

"She? The human is a femme?" BreakDown questioned.

Knock Out faces Aurelia. "I'd introduce you to him but he's not very fond of humans."

Aurelia crosses her arms, "I don't think your species ever liked my kind in the first place."

"This is goodbye pet."

"Good."

"That's not a proper goodbye."

"So raping me would've!" She said viciously.

"There you go again denying the good time we could've had."

"You have issues… you're crazy!" Her arms flailed up as she said this but quickly lowers them down to hold her towel.

Knock Out reaches over to stroke her messy hair but Aurelia reacts by pulling back. "Pet, say the proper words for a farewell."

If this is what it takes she will push herself to do so. "Fine. Goodbye!" She said spitefully.

"I don't like that tone of yours."

Aurelia inhales deeply then exhales. She looks him in the eyes, "Goodbye Knock Out."

"Mmm, doesn't seem satisfying."

"What do you want! Hugs and kisses? We were never _friends_."

Knock Out thinks about the hugs and kisses. "Yeah you should give me that."

"Give you what?"

"Hugs and kisses." He made an irked face, "That sounded too friendly."

Aurelia made a face, "No."

"Do it. And make the kiss a non-provoking, no biting interaction."

"Oh my God! Would you just leave!", she whined. "Stop trying to annoy me to the very end."

She looks at BreakDown in the distance who slowly approaches them. "Your partner looks like he's ready to smash my car. You have to leave!"

She starts pushing Knock Out back by the shoulders. "Give me what I ask and _then_ I'll leave."

"Do you promise?" Aurelia was growing desperate.

"Yes. I'll follow through this time." He grins at her.

"I'll hug you but you won't like a kiss from me. My breath stinks." She was hoping to avoid it whatever way possible.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Just here would be fine." He points to his cheek. Aurelia looks at him in confusion. _'Why does he... ?'_ She sighs in defeat, "Fine. Whatever."

As she was about to wrap her arms around him when he interrupts, "Pretend to make it meaningful."

Aurelia sighs with these constant demands but he was dangerous to her, "Alright already! I really don't understand why you care for all this nonsense."

He chuckles, "Well it _is_ to annoy you. But I think I'm feeling the effects of a sentimental human. It's disgusting really."

"I _seriously_ doubt that sentimental part. Let's get this over with." Aurelia's heart beats fast with anticipation that he would be finally gone. She scoots up closer as does he which makes her feel embarrassed that he would want this. Aurelia sees he wears that smug expression which she suddenly has the urge to smack him. She of course refrains from doing the act.

She inches closely and kisses him on the cheek for three seconds. She lays her chin in the crook of his neck and slowly brings her arms around him. Knock Out feels her arms loosely wrapped around him, "Tighter." He demands. She does what he commands. "Closer.", he says in a low tone.

Aurelia doesn't want to but she leans her body in closer to his. He found the towel she wore annoying but he wasn't going to ask her to take it off knowing she'd fight him furiously because of it. He _could_ take it off but he lets it be. Knock Out never returns the hugging gesture. He let Aurelia do all the work. "Can I let go now?" She said in annoyance.

Knock Out sits there finding her warmth comfortable. He pats her back, "Yes." Aurelia immediately reels herself away feeling relieved to get some distant. "Goodbye pet. The experience was insufferable yet interesting with you around."

"Yeah. Right. Bye." Her reply was curt.

Knock Out opens the door and takes one more look at Aurelia. She doesn't look at him as she eagerly waits for him to leave. She hears the door shut and she locks all four doors from her side. Knock Out who heard the locking noise turns around to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "I _could_ smash your window to get to you."

Chills run throughout her body at the thought as he turns away from the car. She goes to look at the ignition to see the keys were still in there. She breathes out a grateful sigh as she watches Knock Out walk over to BreakDown. She pinches herself to make sure this was no dream. It did hurt so this confirms reality. Knock Out stops walking.

"Knock Out?" BreakDown crouches down to look at this human who stands before him.

"The one and only." Knock Out says as he stands there feeling humiliated in this present form, especially in front of his partner.

"I'd hate to be you right now." BreakDown mocked.

"Don't start BreakDown. I'm already in a sour mood as is."

"He he he he. Not like you could do anything about it."

Knock Out grumbled. "We should test out my theory. To see if I have to rely this planet's air or not."

"Yeah but are you really going to let that human live?"

"I suppose I'm going soft but she helped me out, sometimes unwillingly, but she did. Like I said she's harmless."

BreakDown recalls a similar situation to where Starscream told him to finish off Bulkhead. "No! You should finish her off." The orange-face Decepticon couldn't help his grudge towards the humans.

While the two speak of their disagreement to the situation, Aurelia sees Knock Out wave his hand to the giant robot and from what she can decipher, he might be trying to avoid a situation. _'Oh God... so close. Please, no more problems.'_ She continues to sit there waiting to see what next. Wanting to witness him go through the process of disappearing or do something that meant he is officially gone along with the heavy-duty robot.

BreakDown transforms to vehicle mode. This shocked Aurelia. _'What! They hide in vehicle forms?'_ She saw Knock Out get in the driver side and gives a military salute to Aurelia. A white light appears behind them and they disappear into it. Aurelia finally releases her held in breath and quickly switches over to the driver's side including the towels. She turns on the ignition and drives fast, away from the site.

Aurelia starts to laugh, "H-he's gone. He's gone! He's actually gone…" She continues laughing hysterically until she drew tears. Her laughter subsides into soft sobbing from this entire experience. Everything around her looks blurry. She constantly wipes her eyes clear, preventing them from becoming a driving hazard. After ten minutes of driving she digs in her purse and is disappointed to see her phone has no signal. _'Good thing I paid attention.'_ She relies on her memory to get back home as tears continue to trickle down her face.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

BreakDown arrives on Nemesis, floating above Earth's atmosphere, with Knock Out walking nearby. "Good to know I don't need oxygen."

BreakDown looks down at Knock Out's human for and laughs, "Yeah. You're still a fleshy."

"Once I'm back to normal I'll be sure to surgically remove that other eye of yours."

The bulky Cybertronian grumbles at the medic. "We'll see!"

"That's the thing BreakDown. You won't be able to."

BreakDown was getting boiled up by this mockery. "Watch yourself Knock Out." He warned.

Knock Out sighs, "Sorry about that BreakDown."

BreakDown cools off knowing that Knock Out absolutely hates his current predicament. He would too if he was as unfortunate. "Not sure what Lord Megatron would do with you."

"Probably dispose of me."

"Maybe, but you're his only medic."

"I'm practically useless in this form." Knock Out mentally flinches at the image of Megatron blasting him to meet the All Spark. "This may be a bad idea to confront him. I _do__not_ want the others to see me this way!" The idea of being permanently offline didn't sound so bad at the moment.

Knock Out had to think of what if and if he were stuck to be partially human then he could try and convince a certain brunette to allow him to share her household again. _'__Not __likely. __The __damn __human __femme __is __convinced __I__'__d __attempt __rape! __Well__… __maybe. __She __refuses __to __recognize __her __denial. __How __about __her __human __friend?__'_ He laughs at his next thought. _'__I__'__d __have __to __seduce __the __femme. __Her __infatuation __for __me __can __be __annoying.__'_ Knock Out ruffles through his hair feeling vexed.

His pet, well not anymore, would be his first stop but that would require him to force his way through. Knock Out stops contemplating and concentrates on the present problem. There was no way Lord Megatron would tolerate his mostly-organic form. That was certain.

BreakDown stops walking and looks behind to watch Knock Out's many facial expressions. He concludes the medic was mentally battling for the uncertain future. The bulky transformer stops walking and crouches down. He holds out his hand for Knock Out to climb in. Knock Out stared at it.

Knock Out scoffs at the hand and walks forward and away from it feeling insulted. He still had some pride to hold onto. Knock Out attempts to transform the rest of his body. "Frag!" BreakDown and Knock Out walk onward, both with thoughts of what may happen.

They arrive at Megatron's location where the fierce Decepticon currently has his back to them. BreakDown is the first to grab the leader's attention, "Lord Megatron. I have found Knock Out." Megatron turns to see BreakDown but does not see Knock Out, "What are you talking about BreakDown?"

BreakDown points down to where Knock Out stands. Megatron's optics follows down and sees a human, "How is this Knock Out?"

"Sir, Knock Out somehow became human. The cause is still unknown."

Megtron's optics zooms in on the human to see he contains robotic arms rather than human arms, "He's rendered useless."

The sound of sudden shifting was perceptible.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Aurelia arrives in her driveway pulling up into her garage. She opens the door and sits for a few seconds to rub her lower back and stomach as she tries to relieve the pain caused by her cramps. She grabs her towels, purse and pulls out the car key. Her want for sleep increases as she steps into her house. She can feel her injured ankle has been further damaged.

Her eyelids feel unbearably heavy making it difficult to keep them open. As she hastily trudges to her room, she looks left, right, and behind her making sure _he_ hasn't return. In her room she disposes the dirty towels in the laundry basket and grabs a nightgown, the only clean sleepwear available, and underwear from her room. She tells herself to get on with the laundry first thing tomorrow for she is getting tired of running out of her comfortable clothes. Unstable legs move her to the bathroom for a quick shower.

The hot water beats against her skin for a couple of minutes as she leans against the tiled walls of the shower with her eyes closed. Aurelia slides against the cold wall and sinks into a leaned over sitting position. She is exhausted from the series of ill-fated events that happened in a day. Aurelia's mind quickly replays the events.

'_Pet.__'_ Aurelia shivers and hugs herself hearing that voice play through her head. Tears welled up in her eyes again and they fall.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

**AN:** Holy hell. I can't predict the reaction to this… I know there probably has be disappointment for the lack of full on smutness or maybe for what you thought would happen.

Hope there wasn't too much disappointment…

Comments? Concerns? My story needs so many revisions... no time for any of this.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Yes it's continuing.

… is that a good thing? Mmmm... On with the story.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Do you hear my-"

The doorbell rings. Aurelia jumps awake from her dream. She holds her struggling heart and hears the doorbell ring again. She gets up from her couch and walks to the door. She opens it to see no one there. She looks around in nervousness. Her ears pick up the noise of rustling and hushing of voices. "You punks better leave or I'm calling the police! This is the third time this week!" She slams the door shut annoyed that the teenagers had nothing else better to do. Last week it was only twice but she never saw who or what caused it.

'I'll call for sure. Might as well get the mail.' She opens the door again to see the mailman arrive just in time. She waves her arm to the mailman nearing the mailbox and she runs up to him. He smiles at her and gives her the handful of mail, "Good evening Miss. How are you today?"

"Hello sir. I'm good. Thank you." She looks at her pile of mail, "I'm not looking forward to going through all of this." The mailman laughs. "Most of it could be just junk mail. Well you have a good evening Miss."

"Thanks. You too."

This time she reads the envelopes. "More bills." She has slowly recovered the loss of her money. She gratefully continues to hold onto her job and has done her best to recover the bad image of being looked as irresponsible.

Aurelia walks back inside and sits on her couch. In her pile of mail a large envelope draws her attention. She starts to open it but is interrupted by the doorbell again. She goes to the kitchen counter to unplug her cell phone from the charger. "Better not be those damn punks." She said quietly.

She opens the door and sees no one. "That's it! I'm calling the police!" She locks the door and starts dialing.

"Hello. Yes. I'm reporting a problem."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The day has passed without much of a stir. Aurelia sits on the couch ready to watch some television. The cell phone chimes indicating a text message has arrived. Aurelia looks at the phone next to her finding it odd. Her phone hasn't made a sound for months unless it was from work but if that were the case her phone would ring instead.

She looks at the message seeing that there was nothing for the messenger's name. It was blank, not even an 'Unknown' or 'Private' was labeled to indicate the kind of messenger. Her thumb taps on the message and it reads, 'Hey.' She stares at it for some time then throws it aside on the couch.

The television turns on and the volume is raised. An hour passes by and she currently has her laptop sit in her lap as it is booting up. 'I need a new one. Taking too long. Maybe it needs more RAM.'

"Finally." Aurelia logs-in and the first thing she sees is an image that covers her entire screen. "Wha?" She rights clicks it, presses the escape key, and even brings up the task manager, but nothing seems to take the blurry image away. The power button is pressed causing a forced shutdown and pressed again to boot up. After the log-in process is complete Aurelia sees the background image is less blurry.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" The image shows body parts in a sexual act but no faces are revealed. Aurelia goes for the power button again but she felt a shocking pain surge through her finger and up her arm. Instinctively she pulls from it and looks at her laptop in puzzlement. She tries it once more but she could already feel the electrical field.

'Can hackers really do this?' She closes the laptop and flips it over to remove the battery. Her phone suddenly rings causing Aurelia to jump in surprise. She looks at it and the caller is not registered in phone. Although the area code is recognizable she lets the phone continue ringing. 'If it's so important they would bother to leave me a voice message.'

The phone chimes which meant the unknown caller left a voice message. As she is about to tap to listen to the voice message when the phone rings again and she accidentally answers the incoming call instead. She cringes and mutters silently. She stares at her phone in silence. She puts the phone next to her ear and she hears no one.

"Hello?" It was a man's voice.

She decides to answer even though she tells herself she shouldn't. "Hello. Who is this?"

There was a moment of silence, "Hello?" Aurelia said annoyed.

She looks at her phone to see the caller had hung up. She exits the current screen and goes to hear the voice message.

"Hey, I'm calling to see if you'd like to hang out with Lexi and I at the bar tonight? So far Anthony is coming along too. So call either one of us and let us know."

She makes a face at the phone, "This almost sounds like a double date setup."

Aurelia couldn't understand why Nash would invite her it wasn't like they were friends. None of her co-workers were really considered friends. They were only people that work with each other in an informal manner. She figures one night wouldn't be so bad with them.

She dials Lexi's number. "Hello? Hey!"

Aurelia walks to her bedroom. "Hey girl! You're coming right?"

"Um, no. Well I don't feel like it... really."

"I know what this seems like but it's not. We invited other people. I'm tryin' not to make you feel like a third wheel."

"Ha ha well I guess so. So what about the others? Like Beatrice or Xavier?"

"They never answered or returned our calls. I left them all messages too."

Aurelia stares at her closet, "I guess I'll go in what I have."

"Does that mean you're coming?"

"Yeah in my pajamas."

"In your what?"

"I'm just kidding." Aurelia responded in a serious tone.

"Oh, ha ha ha okay. You don't normally joke around I was kinda surprised. Well dress up somewhat nice. Don't go back to those bags that you call clothes."

"But I love my bags. I feel safe when I'm wearing them."

"The bar we're going to is somewhat fancy."

"I don't feel like being around uppity people."

"Come on Aurelia. We're just having a co-workers day out. I think everyone gets along with everybody. The boss isn't going because he wasn't told so-"

"Fine fine fine."

Lexi was starting to feel it probably wasn't a good idea to push Aurelia to come if she didn't want to. Aurelia hears Lexi's barely audible sigh. "Listen, thank you for inviting me. Really, it's nice of you to bother to invite me. I'm still trying to recover my money."

"Hey if it makes you feel better I-"

"No! No. I don't want help to cover anything. Give me the address and I'll meet you guys there."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Aurelia walks through the double glass doors wearing a yellow top, dark gray heels and a dark gray, knee-length skirt that has three functional zippers going across the front of the skirt diagonally. She hadn't worn these items of clothing since Matteo. They held no real sentimental value to her.

The rush of the cold A/C air gave her shivers as the double doors closed behind her. She feels inside her purse and pulls out her phone and starts calling Lexi. "Answeeeer..." She felt a few eyes near the entrance glance at her. This reminded her why she hates going to crowded places. It made feel paranoid for no good reason.

A gentleman approaches her. He looks like he works here, "Excuse me miss. Can I assist you with anything?" Aurelia shakes her head no, "Thank you."

The call went to voicemail. Aurelia looks at the gentleman, "Excuse me sir. Okay, maybe you could help me find the people I'm meeting up with."

He smiles, "Alright, so do you know the name of the person who reserved this?"

Aurelia squints her eyes trying to remember the last name, "Try Lexi Karalis. I don't even know if she reserved this."

He searches through the book. "No. I'm afraid there is no one with that name listed."

"How about Nash? I don't remember the last name." She figured it wasn't a common name.

"No. That name isn't listed here either."

"I didn't want to be here in the first place anyways." She mumbled. Her phone rings and she quickly answers without looking.

"Hello? Lexi?" No response came through. Aurelia pulls her phone away and sees there is neither listed number nor name of any kind. She hangs up in slight anger for getting hopeful. She redials Lexi's number and receives her voicemail yet again.

"God! Why do people do that?"

Aurelia starts to leave through the double doors when she runs into Anthony. "Anthony! I'm sooo glad to see you."

"Heeey, you came! You look very nice tonight." He smiled showing is perfectly straight white teeth. "Were you trying to escape?" He teased.

Aurelia laughs, "Thanks. Not exactly, no."

Anthony is a tall African American, somewhat dark and a good looking man who is always groomed and dressed nicely to work. He is the newest of employees and has been working there for four and a half months.

"Shall we?" He holds out his arm for her to take. "O-Oh. Okay. I'm going to assume you know where they are?" She slips her hand in his arm. Anthony normally would offer his arm to the ladies he walked with or went to lunch with. Aurelia saw him as a subtle flirt when she watches him interact with the women at work. The ladies seemed comfortable with him.

They arrive at a table that had four people seated. "I'm happy to see you came in less baggy clothing!"

"I tried calling you Lexi but you never answered." Anthony releases Aurelia's arm and signals for her to take her seat first. "Thank you Anthony."

Lexi looks at her phone and sees it was turned to silent mode. "Oh no! It was on silent. Yeah I see your missed calls. Aheh, sorry about that."

Aurelia sits and starts conversing with Beatrice who sits next to her, "How's your boy doing?"

"Still a trouble maker. When are you getting married?"

"Never." Beatrice laughs, "Hey, you never know that's all I'm saying."

"Let's order some drinks." Nash said.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

It felt like an hour or two has gone by, Aurelia wasn't so sure but she didn't want to appear rude by looking down at her phone every so often. The conversations were random at times and sometimes it involved everyone at the same moment.

For the most part Aurelia was quietly listening to different parts of the split conversations that took place. The low lights of the bar and the bass of the music were making her feel sleepy.

Aurelia heard a familiar chime. She searches into her purse and reads the message keeping the phone hidden inside her purse. The message read, 'Come outside.' Aurelia looks up to see her co-workers were busy talking and had paid no mind to her.

'What is going on?' She questions the message. She felt bored so she decides to let the stranger know that he or she has reached the wrong person.

'You have the wrong number.'

Her phone chimed again. She puts the phone on silent and taps the message.

'I'm sure I don't.'

Aurelia rolls her eyes. 'How would you know? Who is this?'

'That's for you to find out.'

'So you're saying we know each other?'

'Yes Aurelia we do know each other.'

'You spelled my name correctly. Matteo?'

'You had to mention him didn't you? Try again.'

Aurelia's skin prickled. 'Are you some stalker? Someone from my past?'

'You know me. We're familiars you could say.'

Aurelia pauses to think about everyone she knows, 'I'm not playing this guessing game anymore. The messages stop here.'

'Guess my color.'

She stares at the message and looks up again to see everyone is in their own world.

'What do you mean?'

'Looks like you'll continue this after all. Very good. My most liked color.'

Aurelia's heart bursts into speed. Her finger hovers the letter 'R'. Aurelia stands up suddenly and the scattered conversations came to a stop. The group has their eyes on Aurelia. "Everything okay?" Michael asked.

"Y-Yeah. I have to go guys I'm sorry. Excuse me."

"You don't look so good. Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No. Everything is fine. I think I might've left the stove on or something." She looks at Anthony and then has an idea. "Could you walk me out? You know, since it has gotten late."

"Sure thing. Let's go."

Aurelia holds onto Anthony's arm tightly. He looks down at her trying to figure out what is going with her. "You're not on drugs right?"

Aurelia laughs nervously. "No."

They reach the double doors and Aurelia hears her phone chime. She swore she had it on silent. She fumbles through her purse. 'Let him go or I'll have his head and the blame will be on you.'

Aurelia felt dizzy all of a sudden. "Thanks Anthony right here is fine." Her voice cracked.

Anthony laughs, "Are you serious? You just wanted to be escorted to the door? That's not right. Comon' I'm taking you all the way to your car."

He moves forward but he feels Aurelia is not budging. "Someone keeps bothering you. Is that who is making you act all weird?" His deep voice was filled with worry. "Don't lie Aurelia."

"M-my neighbor. Sorry Anthony but I really really have to go."

Anthony hears the urgency in her voice and feels her hand slip out of his arm. She quickly runs out of the bar. He watches her as she picks up her phone. "Something is wrong with that girl."

Aurelia makes it inside her car, "H-Hello?" There was no answer and she hangs up. She sees another message come through. Ignoring the message she turns on the car and drives anywhere but home. She drives a steady 50 mph for fifteen minutes and has been looking through her rear-view mirror to see hasn't had followers. Another chime is heard.

She resentfully taps on the message. 'Don't think that going to the police station will save you. I'll blast the place down. If you dial that number I'll make sure to get rid of those in the way.'

She couldn't feel more alone. Her thumb taps the screen to respond to the message. 'Who are you! Why are you doing this?'

She drives in the direction of the inner city where there's more people to be around. She hopes this would help her hide or alert the people around her if something were to happen. Ten minutes later she is surrounded by the larger crowds of vehicles and people.

'What do I do?' She questioned. Slowly, she navigates through traffic putting her mind into over drive for a way out.

Her phone makes that dreaded chime sound. She didn't want to look at it, but she had a nagging feeling that it was better to know now rather than later. She sighs shakily and her trembling thumb taps onto the message. She breathes in noting how unsteady she sounds. "It has to be you. Gawd! Who else could it possibly be?"

She talks to herself again, "It was real wasn't it? This is happening. Yeah..."

Gray eyes begin to read the message. 'Looks like we're going to do this the hard way since you haven't stopped. You're making this interesting.'

Aurelia tells herself she shouldn't text while she is driving. For every letter that she taps she in turn looks up at the vehicles around her. Another message comes through. She cancels her current message and reads the new one. 'Let's make this more interesting. Let us have a friendly race shall we? If you win I'll leave you alone. If I win I get to keep you.'

Keep? She couldn't understand why it sounded like he was referring to her as an object. No one can keep another human being. 'NO!', was her reply. If she was correct she would lose no matter how hard she presses against the gas pedal. She remembered the bizarre things he said during his stay. "I bet you look like some kind of expensive red sports car." She said as the reality of her situation continues to sink in. The image of him embodied as a car was difficult to imagine. Only his human form would come to her mind for the various times he would creep through her thoughts.

She frantically looks around the masses of cars hoping to catch a glimpse of any fast vehicle. She cracked her windows down and pays attention for any fast sounding engine. Her heart lurches forward. She hears the revving of an engine. Aurelia does a mental prayer hoping for that miracle. The rear-view mirror reveals a vehicle constantly changing lanes. Alarmed, Aurelia starts to cut off the other drivers rudely. The drivers blare at her in anger.

The thought of speed racing might not be a bad idea for the moment. Aurelia conjures that this could catch the attention of the police. She narrowly misses the next driver which causes this driver to follow her as he rides her bumper. "Uh! Really!" She wasn't certain whether having someone kiss her bumper was either good or bad at this very moment. The driver rides in a silver Acura and consistently 'beeps' at her in the most annoying manner possible.

The traffic light turns red. There are two cars in front of her. "Turn green turn green turn green. Turn green come ooon!" She shakes at the immovable steering wheel feeling more afflicted. The constant loud beeping of the car horn made it difficult for her to hear the revving engine. She felt red in the face for pulling off driving moves like this. The driver behind her was a man and he was flicking her off while he continued being a nuisance.

The rear-view mirror shows the car door open and out comes the angry man. Aurelia grips her steering wheel and makes sure her doors are locked and the windows are now closed. She hears a strange sound and looks behind. The angry man hears it as well and looks back to find people yelling and quickly getting out of their vehicles. There was smoke and short flashes of lights.

Aurelia notices the reflection in her window is spotted with neon green. Aurelia faces forward and slams onto the pedal screeching forward. People were going to get hurt and it was all because of her. There was no real safety within in the city streets. As these thoughts ran through her mind she couldn't help but be a coward and continue to drive within the city limits.

Her speedy getaway quickly came to a stop at a long line of vehicles. "There can't be traffic at this hour." She sticks her head out of the window to see there was an accident. She looks behind and as luck is not on her side she's trapped by a car and many more that are slowing down to a stop.

She notices the next two right lanes have slight gaps between the cars that lead to another street away from traffic. The right most lane has a steady traffic of drivers turning right into a street that is perpendicular. Aurelia turns the steering wheel as much as she can and sounds off the car horn at the drivers as she drives straight across the two lanes shoving her way through. Drivers were blocking and blasting at Aurelia.

She was feeling flustered and annoyed. She looks at the spaced out traffic line behind her which worried her. The hood of a red car switching lanes caught her eye. The car was getting closer. 'It _is_ a red car. Oh God this is happening.' Her heart beats faster as she makes it past the angry drivers and their colorful words.

Aurelia drives straight ahead at a steady 40 mph for a few minutes until an obnoxious blinding light reflects off of her mirrors. It was the red car and it was gaining speed very quickly. The second the red car pulled into view Aurelia has doubled the speed.

Eighty five miles per hour was her current speed and the red car is now inches away from her. "He's too fast!" She turns a right as soon as the chance was made available. The sports car keeps up at the same distance. The street they were on currently on had no vehicles. In Aurelia's mind the coincidence was not possible.

'I should stop. I should stop.' She didn't know what else to do. Her foot releases the gas and she feels the car begin to slow down. The sports car pulls up beside her. She has been observing the buildings while her car slowly decreases in speed.

A parking garage comes into view. The black Dodge breaks sharply and the engine goes off. Aurelia scrambles to the other side of the seat and charges out of her car closing it and locks it. As she runs into the parking garage she could hear the car coming for her. She doesn't want to look back.

All of her senses heighten as her heels pound against the pavement. She hears an unusual noise behind her then feels the ground shake beneath her. She doesn't dare look back. All of her concentration is set to run the hell away from the car. Her legs whip over the arm of the gate and heads over to the elevator that she quickly spotted. Next to the elevator was a sign that said, 'stairs'.

She entered through the door that leads to them. She starts going up the flights of stairs and looks up to see there were many. 'Damn! How tall is this building?' Her stamina for going up any number of stairs was very low.

By the fifth flight of stairs she has slowed down dramatically. Her legs burned as she pushes through. On the sixth flight of stairs she exits through the door to gain access to the elevator. She looks around with eyes wide in alert. Her finger pushes at the elevator button three times while she pulls out her phone to see there is signal.

The gears and cables within the elevator were working hauling itself up. She stares at the elevator door in anxiousness. It finally made a soft 'ding' sound and the door opens. Aurelia catches a glimpse of what looked like red hair. She felt all of her hairs stand up. "Oh shit!" She sprints to the stairs. He runs after her.

Echoes of laughter filled throughout the enclosed space. "I can see up your skirt!" She runs faster up the stairs hearing him come after her. Exhaustion quickly claims her body and she shot through the door on the twelfth floor. She looks around and runs to the ledge. She straddles it and hears the door swing open. He walks slowly over to her.

"Something looks different about you."

He of course took this situation lightly not caring whether she would jump from the twelfth floor or not. At least this is what Aurelia could see from his body language. "Stay away! I'll jump!" He ignores her and continues walking leisurely. Aurelia found his attire strange for the occasion. As if he was going somewhere fancy or important. He wore a black vest, white long sleeves, black slacks and shoes.

He now stands inches away from her. He signals with hand for her to come with him. "No! Why'd you come after me? Why'd you come back?"

"Now now is this how you treat an old friend? It has been many months since we last saw each other. I'd say about six months in your human terms."

"I'd say it wasn't long enough. You didn't answer my question."

He takes one step further. Aurelia leans to the side as a warning that she will jump. "Take a ride with me. I promise to you keep you strapped up."

"Looks like you want to keep me longer than that."

He takes another step and she follows with leaning further out. He takes two more and Aurelia wobbles unable to keep her balance. She tilts over and gasps with flailing arms. He runs and grabs her. She allows him pull her back in. She felt a nasty scrape underneath her one thigh as she stands up straight. The scratch stung.

Quickly does she push him away and reels back from him. She speaks nervously, "What the hell do you want Knock Out? You should've let me fall."

"It didn't look like you wanted to."

He stares at her with those unusual black and red eyes. He swiftly walks up to her and places his hands firmly around her face. "Y-You cut your hair! That's what is so different about you." She was not suspecting this move from him. She yanks his hands off of her face but he doesn't keep his hands far from her face. He messes with a few strands of her shoulder length hair.

"Why did you cut it? I liked it better when it was long." He plays with a few more strands of her hair as her eyes flinched. "Did it hurt?"

"What is with this sudden concern?"

He pulls away after that comment. "I was only curious. Am I forbidden to ask questions?"

He starts to circle around her. "W-Whatever you freakin' alien." She watches and follows his every move.

"I haven't terrified you that much have I? I felt like I wasn't too harsh on you." His voice sounded devious. He quickly grabs her and puts her onto his shoulders. "Lemme go! Ow! Owowow! My thigh!"

He smacks her butt making her yell some more. "We're going for a ride, pet."

"I. Am. Not. Your. Pet! Do you understand? I'm not yours to keep!"

"I said I was taking you for a ride."

"Dammit! Let me go!" She punches him in the back. "Let me go!"

She didn't notice they have reached the elevator. Knock Out presses for the first floor. "You can let me go now." She said as the elevator doors close.

"Let's get a towel from your trunk first. I don't want you bleeding inside me. That would be disgusting."

She hadn't looked back in her trunk for a while but she was sure she had one. "I want to go home. I don't want to be taken away."

"Not yet pet."

"You're an ass!"

"Physically speaking you have a bigger one." He gives it a pat.

"Shut up." She mumbled. He laughed at her pouting. He could feel the blood running through her veins pulsate very fast.

"Sooo, you're not bleeding anywhere else are you?"

She could feel the blood drain from her face. "Aren't you... aren't you suppose to be back to who or what you are."

"Oh I am. And I'm taking you for a ride. You should be more than honored."

The entire time she's come face to face with him Aurelia has been trying to calm her nerves. Her mind could only think of their last encounter. Afraid that he would repeat the act again she hopes that the bleeding thigh is enough to keep him from trying.

Aurelia felt the silent moment between them was awkward. It could be that she was the only one feeling awkward. The elevator doors open. Knock Out steps outside and puts Aurelia down. "I've never trusted you."

He gives her a serious face. "I know. You just have to see what happens since I'm so untrustworthy pet."

She clenches her hands into fists. "Uuuuhhh! I'm not a pet! I'm human!"

"Humans are smaller and beneath my kind so you're a pet."

She points at him. "That statement does you no justice whatsoever." He glares at her.

Aurelia grabs at her hair. "Gawd you stress me out! You drive me nuts! You- what are you doing?"

Her eyes follow him exiting the parking garage as he walks past her car and is out of site. "Open your trunk!" She points her remote to her car and she hears him open it and then closes it. Seconds later an engine revs up and reveals itself. "Let's start over. The names Knock Out. Would you like to go for a ride?" Her eyes took in the sleek shape of the car and the shining finish was glaring in pride. Knock Out could see her mouth hang slightly open. "I'd take it you're impressed. As you should be."

"You're a talking car." Aurelia simply stated yet her mind couldn't believe that no one was driving in the vehicle. The car door opens as she cautiously walks near it. "Get in." The sports car was luxurious on the outside as it was from the inside. She stands about a foot away from it and she could hear it sighing in impatience.

"What's taking you so long?"

"We don't trust each other. Remember?"

"Oh well. Too bad then."

Her eyes squint at something that was moving from inside the car. By the time she realized it was aimed at her the late reaction to runaway cost her escape. The flying objects were seat-belts and she felt them wrap around her body.

"Don't do it dammit!" She wailed desperately.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**A/N:** Apologies for the last chapter. My thoughts are that the moment wasn't right. I still appreciate the feedback/reviews!

I would like to give a grateful THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed/favored/alert my story (I totally forgot to give thanks on last chapter)! I do appreciate all of those who continue to stick with me. You guys rock!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** I have been working on this on and off. I try to get this to you guys fast as possible.

On with the story.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Seatbelts fly out and winds itself tightly around Aurelia. She struggles getting them off of her waist and chest area. Aurelia leans forward pushing her heels against the concrete.

"L-let's make a deal!" She felt her breathing begin to constrict from the tightness.

"We tried many of those. Can you guess how they worked out?" He tugs her back. "Now come on."

Aurelia feels herself go backwards as her heels scrape across the ground. "No, no, nonono. No!" She twists and turns and tries to loosen the seatbelts.

Knock Out whips the seatbelts back inside while Aurelia continues to fight. She lands inside the car but not without having an arm and leg holding onto the outside of the car's door frame.

"You should let go unless you want me to decapitate you." Knock Out warned as he didn't want smudging or finger prints on his paint. If he were to decapitate her it would be worse than smudges. He mentally cringed at the thought of her blood everywhere.

Aurelia gambled on it and retorts with her own threat. "Oh yeah? I'll smear my bloody thigh all over your seats! Let me go!" She yelled in confidence.

Knock Out's engine revs up in anger and protest. Aurelia feels the tightened straps loosen. She doesn't waste time as she stands up trying to remove the seatbelts. The seatbelts never completely unwound around her and the second she stood up the polyester straps loosely coiled downward covering more of her body.

Knock Out takes the opportunity. He re-tightens the seatbelts much to Aurelia's surprise and reels her back inside successfully. Aurelia yells at the top of her lungs, "HELP! Help! F-Fire! FIIIRE!" The car door slams shut muting out her loud cries. Aurelia breathes heavily and bangs her head back against the seat knowing that struggling at this point was officially a waste of energy. Knock Out increases speed causing Aurelia to grip the seat.

"Where are you taking me?" She fidgets where she sits.

"You'll see soon enough. Now sit still." He ordered. Aurelia's heart beats faster. She hated the feeling of being scared, alone, and helpless. There was no one she could call that can effectively rescue her. "Why... WHY?"

"Why what?" Knock Out asked as he avoids giving her a straight answer.

"You know what. Why are you taking me away? I thought you'd be gone forever and have nothing to do with humanity."

"That makes two of us pet. I've been on your planet longer than I'd like to be."

In the past, Aurelia had questioned him before what was their kind's purpose on Earth. She never received an answer but it was obvious it was not meant for the good of human kind. "Why are you back? Why did you retain your human form?"

"As I mentioned earlier, that's for me to know and for you to find out." She could imagine him smirking right now. It was heard in the tone of his voice.

"Where are you hiding?" She looks at the seat next to her then towards the back.

"What do you mean? I'm right here."

She shakes her head. "I can hear your voice but I don't see you. Your- your human form."

"This _is_ me, an alternate mode of myself."

Her mind recollects that memory of his partner. 'I'll find out soon enough what he looks like in his robot form.'

"By the way did you check your mail today?"

"Not all of it." Her brows furrowed trying to think of any unusual looking envelope as she tries to check on her scraped thigh. "Why?"

"I delivered a gift for you."

Her face expresses confusion. "Whatever it is take it back. I don't want it."

"Why not? You haven't seen it yet." He chuckled.

Aurelia realizes something and gasps. "It was you!"

"You catch on quick pet. I like that."

"You perverted alien! You put that porno background picture on my laptop?" She hears his mechanical laughter. "You're sick." She berated.

"It wasn't that bad. I only wanted to share with you a little of my fantasies. Can't friends share with one another what's on their minds."

"We are not friends. We're nothing!"

"How about very well acquainted familiars?"

"Not even."

"Don't be like that. We even hugged and kissed and almost-"

"Shut up! J-Just shut up… that, that was a horrible situation you put me through you bastard alien!" Her angry, shaky voice is a clear indication to Knock Out she is going to be more uncooperative. He knew he shouldn't have gone near the mention of that incident.

"I think you should cool off." He said sternly. "No more talking from here on out." He was starting to think he should cancel his plans with her. He speeds up 120 miles per hour making his passenger feel on edge. He lowers down all four of his windows. The chilly air blasts past Aurelia's face causing her strands of hair to whip against her face. She tries to lean away as much as possible from the window.

Knock Out laughs. "Oh come on. I'm not even going that fast." He had to have some kind of fun with her especially with the way she has been behaving with him. She stays in this position for the rest of the ride. Her mind reminisces back to when he stayed with her. The worst mistake of her life only second to Matteo. Or maybe just as bad. She mostly remembers the negative but she tries to recall the few good, civil conversations and cooperative times they did have together. She had to remind herself he was capable of not always being an asshole. Something positive had to put her pessimistic mind at ease.

As Knock Out drives he wonders how long his disappearance will be noticed before the night ends. He could care less at the moment. He needed to get away from Nemesis. Too many things have gone wrong and no longer in his favor.

Two hours later the sound of the engine decreases as the vehicle comes to a full stop. Knock Out pulls up to a lake untouched by human kind. "We're here." The seatbelts release Aurelia but she doesn't move. He sounds off his horn. "Wake up!"

Aurelia wakes up startled. She sits up straight and sees ahead of her the moonlight reflecting off the lake's surface. She holds her side feeling a bad crank in it. "You let yourself become quite comfortable to the point of sleep. There better not be any drool on the seat or I'll make you do a vigorous and thorough cleaning."

She quickly touches around her mouth to feel no moisture. She mentally scolds at herself. There was no need to fear the finicky robot alien. "Why're we here?" she said staring at the lake, "We're not planning to go for a swim are we? Because it's pretty chilly."

Knock Out stays quiet. The door opens and Aurelia gets out carrying the towel with her. The stinging pain was becoming bothersome again. She has her back to the car as she lifts up her skirt to check on her thigh. She lightly touches the scratches and finds out they have dried up. Knock Out does a wolfish whistle causing Aurelia to straighten up and quickly pull down her skirt in embarrassment.

He still knows how to make her fluster. She's giving him that look that she always gives him when she's upset and embarrassed. He could see she doesn't know where her eyes should land when he is in this alternate mode. "I suggest you take a couple of steps back. I'm about to take up quite a bit of space."

She sprints a couple of feet away and stands there, waiting to see what happens. Knock Out transforms and sees Aurelia gaping at him as she slowly taking a few more steps back. His transformation is complete. Aurelia stands there with her mouth still open. He chuckles at how amazed she appears to be with him. And rightly so was his thought.

"Well? No comments?"

Aurelia finally closes her mouth and clears her throat. "Big, red, and shiny."

"What was that?" He crouches near her, smirking. She backs away from his enormous form but Knock Out grabs her and proceeds to stand up. Aurelia silently screams on the inside while griping fiercely onto his hand feeling the whoosh of air blowing against her.

She didn't want to be this high up since Starscream, but there she was at this dangerous altitude. Knock Out loosely holds onto her fragile body. "Now, do you want to talk about deals?"

Aurelia goes from scared to scowling at his chosen tactic of negotiation. '_Oh! You underhanded-_' She kept her thoughts from cursing and observes his features. His face was pale surrounded by an odd looking helmet-like object. 'Elf ears?' Aurelia distinguishes the human characteristics of his robotic form. "This is what you truly look like?"

"Yes. I look good don't I?" He smiles confidently. "Well, more than good really."

Aurelia responds only with a sigh. "You know, you could blackmail or-or even threaten any of the other humans. Why come back to me? Don't you find me revolting? Bothersome? Boring?"

"Pet, I know we've had our petty conflicts…" He stares at her small form and doesn't say another word. His optics holds a distant stare. Aurelia becomes nerved by how quiet he remains. "Ahem. Knock Out." His distant stare reverts to awareness.

"Hm? Oh. Right." He brings her up closer to his face. "You truly look like a pet now."

"No I do not!"

He gives her an angry look. "Watch your tone with me."

"Or what?"

He laughs at her boldness. That or she is foolish for he could drop her anytime. Something needs to be done to remind her where she stood. His hand quickly opens and Aurelia drops out of his hand screaming. He quickly scoops her up and hears her body make a thunk noise.

Knock Out's face plates distort thinking she might have hit against his servo a bit too harshly. But why should he care. That would mean blood may have leaked. His face reflects the gross idea. He examines her sprawled out body seeing that her chest is rapidly rising and falling. "Hey. You're not bleeding on me are you?"

His digits encircle her body and give her a little shake. He hears her groan out in pain. Her eyes open and she brings her hand to hold onto her head. "Ah. That hurt! You were trying to kill me!"

"Kill you? My dearest pet, why would I do such a thing? That would just ruin the fun I have planned for us."

Aurelia continues to rub her head not understanding why he bothers with her. "Only you would have fun." She mumbled.

"Are you bleeding?" He asks her. Aurelia has no doubt that this giant isn't truly concerned for her well being.

She examines herself. "No. There's no need to worry over your precious- claw things."

"That's a relief." This confirmed Aurelia's thought and she frowns at his inconsideration towards her. 'He hasn't changed one bit!' Not that she cared but it would make his presence more bearable.

"Well, let us get on with the show." He swings her up into the air and she lands inside his alternate mode. Aurelia lands inside crooked and she straightens up in a panic. Her breaths are fast as she looks around to find that she's back inside the car. "You're planning to kill me! Admit it!"

"I've told you already."

"You didn't say anything reassuring."

"Stop arguing with me femme!" Aurelia kept her mouth shut. Knock Out felt he was ready to bust a fuse because she didn't believe him. Not that he blamed her for it but he hasn't done anything too threatening towards her today. He thinks it over again. No, nothing too drastic. She is overreacting.

"Play along nice and everything will go smoothly. You might enjoy yourself pet."

Aurelia nods. "Could you stop calling me pet? It's degrading to me."

"Degrading?" Knock Out knew she never was fond of the chosen word. "I wouldn't call it that. It's an endearment I chose for you."

She huffs at that lie. "Yeah, right. And my chosen endearment for you is alien freak."

Knock Out laughs. "Think of it however you like."

A strange frequency is heard. "Come in Knock Out." It was the voice of an unfamiliar mechanical being. Aurelia guessed there was hundreds more of his kind here on Earth.

"Did you put in the correct coordinates?"

"Yes sir. The bridge is ready." A familiar white tunnel of light appears in front of them. Aurelia gasps and holds onto the seat as Knock Out speeds up and drives through the tunnel. She closes her eyes tightly waiting for the worst to come.

"We might have a bit of a rough landing." Aurelia feels something snaking around her body. She looks down to see it's the seatbelts. "T-that bad?" She questioned.

"It's possible."

The answer gave her no comfort. She leans back into her seat as much as possible, they are exiting the tunnel. The vehicle dives down sharply out of the bridge. "Oh God…" A road made of concrete appears, the view zooms in fast. Aurelia feels her stomach lurch forward as she clenches her teeth and looks away.

The tires screech against the pavement. Aurelia jerks up and forward and hears the engine work harder. The car swerves to the side then straightens up and drives onward. After solid seconds of constant, steady motion Aurelia decides to relax a little.

She doesn't recognize where they are but she assumes they are still on Earth. They were not in Nevada for sure. The street signs she was reading were not all in English. 'What foreign place is this? He plans to ditch me here and transport his robotic ass out of here! Uh! I'm cussing too much because of him. It's always because of him!'

Aurelia couldn't understand why she had to have misfortune happen upon her again. She can only make things worse or help it get worse. She looks to her left seeing the ocean. It looked pretty at night, she thought. Her head lays back uncertain of what will take place. Why did he come back? Or is he on some mission that happened to be on the way. That almost seems reasonable.

"Why so quiet?" Knock Out spoke.

"Just thinking aloud and freaking out on the inside."

"That… doesn't exactly make sense but alright then. We're almost to the hot-el- err… place."

Aurelia jerks up. "WHAT? What hotel? Are you being a perverted alien again!"

"Calm down."

She holds her tongue and waits for his lies to come.

"Nothing like that will go down. I have to stick you somewhere for night and you're not sleeping inside of me."

"Why? Afraid of _my_ drool?" She mocked angrily. She was feeling childish acting this way. "I have to pay so it comes out of my pocket and I'm still recovering because of you!"

Knock Out was ready to bust something other than a fuse. "Remember how I said to place nice? You better start or you won't like what I would do to you."

"Ooo! _Maldito eres!_ You're attitude pisses me off!" She breathes in a frustrated fashion. "Can't you be nicer? If that's too hard maybe tone it down some?"

She didn't have to sit here and take this any longer, her hands feel around the door area. There was neither lock to be found nor a handle to open the door. At this point she calms down. She couldn't figure out why she was here. She speaks calmly, "What's going Knock Out? Can you please help understand because that would be comforting."

Knock Out wanted to lash out at her but that would only fuel it. He becomes the bigger mech or in this case the better species. "No." He hears her sigh. "But I will continue to keep you in the dark after we get to… the hotel."

Aurelia does her best to keep her cool since they were speaking in even voice level. "You do know what usually goes on in hotels, right?"

Knock Out gives it some thought. The one bedroom set up would be nice for some foreplay. But with her foul mood since they reunited… she won't give in. He grumbles to himself mentally. How foolish of him to reconsider any skin, flesh thing. Here he was going through with this plan.

"I'm aware. I won't do anything. You will just have to take my word on that." He sounded serious, but Aurelia wasn't convinced.

"It's not like you really care… you never did and you never will."

"I'm ready to throw you out if you keep this up."

Her face looks annoyed. "Go ahead. You don't have to put up with me. I'm always expecting this kind of treatment from you anyways."

Knock Out slows down and enters the hotel plaza in an angry manner making the tires screech. Aurelia took that as a sign and wonders if she should try to run away once she gets out. Except every time she tries something it ends in failure. Play nice is what she will do for now.

Aurelia notices the structure of the hotel, it looked European. "Get out." The door is readily open and Aurelia steps out into the cool air. The door slams shut making her flinch knowing she has put him in a bad mood.

She stands there guessing she should head to hotel since he bothered making the trip. A push was made on her behind. She flinches at the startling touch on her butt. She quickly turns and Knock Out is there in human form with the same outfit. He does not look happy.

Before Aurelia could ask, Knock Out grabs her arm pulling her toward the hotel. "Come on."

She pulls her arm free. "I can walk without help." He gets in her face making her nervous causing her head to lean back. "Um, thank you for" she started out, "all of this?" She wasn't sure what she was thanking him for but he looked confused. Knock Out backs away and starts laughing. She wasn't going to ask and lets him be.

"You try now to be polite with me… ridiculous."

"Hey!" How could he say that? He must have some sort of memory loss. Aurelia stood there with crossed arms. "When I took you in I tried being polite to you, I tried to help relieve you of your human condition…" She took a breather. "I tried meeting you in the middle, but you couldn't do that and you kept on being your rude, demanding self." She points her finger in the air. "I know how I acted sometimes but you were draining me physically and mentally."

"Let's not get into this right now." Knock Out didn't want to hear it. He had plenty to counter what she just said but that would be a long night. Admittedly, her attitude towards him hasn't been encouraging. That was laughable, a human having this effect on him, a Decepticon. It must be this human form.

Aurelia couldn't understand him. She didn't know what he wanted from her nor did she know if he didn't want anything at all. She breathes in and out and walks up to him. "Lead the way." She said quietly. He shoves his hands in the pants' pockets and walks ahead without another word.

They arrive at the counter and Knock Out immediately speaks to the gentleman at the front desk, French. Aurelia stood there amazed he spoke something other than English. She was in France? While Knock Out spoke he handed her a brochure. She took it and it read the hotel's name and the name Corsica. He brain jarred for a moment. Corsica. Corsica. Her eyes widen and realize they were on an island. A place she has always wanted to go. Her heart beat faster and grew excited.

Her attention is back to Knock Out who has already walked on without her. She sprints after him. She watches his back afraid to ask him what they were doing here. They reach the door to their room. She stands at the entrance while he holds it open for her.

"What are you waiting for? Get in."

She gives a long look then steps inside and turns to him. "Not coming in?"

"No."

She was confused, again.

His eyebrows furrow. "Do you want me to?" The way he said it sounded like an absurdity.

"I-" She didn't want to say anything insensitive.

"I have more important things to take care of. You are free to wander. Do whatever." He hands her the card key.

"How will you get in?"

"The human gave me an extra." He said sounding a little impatient.

"How is this all this paid for? How do you know French?"

Knock Out shrugs his shoulders. His eyes reveal a different emotion she could not place. "Good night." He lets go of the door and walks away leaving a troubled Aurelia.

-o-o-o-o-o-o—

A/N: THAAANK YOOOU for the reviews/feedback! AWESOME! I know been a while since update. Trying to shorten these chapters for reader's sake and lack of time.

I think KO's door doesn't really open or it can't so I'm saying it is in my story.

I feel like I can draw better than I can write! I updated the deviantart link in my profile. Same one.


	9. Chapter 9

Corsica Hotel

The night has passed. Aurelia feels herself drawn to warmth. Is the heater on? That didn't seem right. Aurelia opens her eyes and draws back seeing the source of the warmth. She pushes the alien away but the arm that is draped over pulls her in close again.

Aurelia couldn't deny it. This felt nice to be held by someone even if it was by a non-human asshole. She has been missing company since she has not reconciled with Lucile, nor has Lucile contacted her. She draws in closer to his warmth but stops. Her eyes squeeze tight as she scolds at herself.

Loneliness. Yes, she was very lonely. She didn't want him to leave last night when he did. She would've tolerated his foul mood that night. Having him around was more than enough to kill the solitude. But that was risking another scene she would not want to revisit.

"Knock Out wake up." She said with a hoarse voice. She starts to shake him. She couldn't allow herself to enjoy this.

"Hmm?" He pulls her in closer unconsciously.

"Get up! Knock Out!" His eyelids squeeze tighter at her voice.

"More time…" He says groggily.

Aurelia sighs and lies still underneath his chin until he realizes that he's in the same bed with her. She felt he may not have wanted to end up here. Her forehead barely grazes his skin. He feels like a real human but he doesn't smell nor completely function like a human.

After a while there was no suggestion he would move anytime soon. What time was it? He must have had a rough night if he is still tired. Aurelia felt herself almost giving into this embrace again. She fights it. She's not quitting until he wakes up. "Hey, you're in the wrong place."

"Mm. No pet… be quiet." He mumbled.

"You're hugging me." She felt his body stiffen and he pushes her back with his robotic arms. As far as her eyes can see he has nothing covering his upper body. She hopes he is at least in his underwear.

His red and black eyes peer down at her. Servos move from her shoulders and continue down until they stop at her wide hips. He rubs them in a circular motion. "Stop it." He sees her unhappy face but that doesn't stop him. "They have processors of their own." Her lips thin out at that comment.

He loosens his hold on her but his arms remain where they are. Aurelia pushes the metal arm away and rolls out of bed. "I have to go buy clothes or find someplace to wash what I have. I can't be running around in a robe all day." She couldn't guess how long they would be here on this island.

Knock Out watches her discomfort grow. "Why are you talking to the floor?" He smiles slyly. He gets up from the bed and walks over to her. Black slacks come into her view, and her eyes shoot straight to his face. His arms are human again.

"Pull something out of my pockets."

She looks at him strangely. "Why can't you do it?"

"Just go along with it."

She looks down his chest then lingers a little at his abdomen muscles and down further at his mid and pocket area. Nothing strange seems to be going on and the pockets look empty. "Fine. Which pocket?"

He was a little surprised by her verbal cooperation. "Any." He said with a wicked grin.

"You better not do anything to me."

He raises an eyebrow at her. She hesitates then she quickly shoves her hands in and pulls out red, string-like fabric from both sides. "It's for you." He said.

"I-It is?" She rings it out the two pieces. She holds them out and her eyes widen. Her mouth drops. "What the hell is this? Where did you get it?"

"Some femme was throwing them out of a basket for free. Unfortunately she didn't have them in black or yellow which suits you better." His eyes travel down and he angles his face. "You should wear them."

"Oh no. Hell no! These pieces of strings are not wearable." He smirks.

Her voice lowers to harsh whisper. "I'm not wearing a thong a-and n-nipple coverings for a bathing suit!" Her face is bright red. She shakes the pieces of strings in his face.

"I personally hate having to change into human clothes. It's annoying and pointless. Buuut…" He walks closer until he has her back against the wall. She looks to the floor again but she won't stay put. She runs to the bathroom. The sound of feet comes after her. She slams the door shut but the sound was dull and the door swiveled.

His arm blocked the door. Aurelia panics and tries pushing against it. "Femme!" He pushes through making her stumble back. He shuts the door behind him and locks it. Aurelia throws herself at the doorknob. He blocks and pushes her back.

"Wear them or I'll put them on for you." He warns.

Aurelia makes a whiney noise. "I don't want to!"

"Good things will happen."

She shakes the pieces of strings in anger. "How!"

Her breathing pattern quickens. "I am not feeling secure right now… with you."

Knock Out crosses his arms and stands there giving her a look that meant he won't back down. "As if you care how I feel…" She said in a weak voice.

"I'm waiiiitiiing." He stands there while his finger taps his bicep muscle. Her shoulders slump and she gives in having her back turned to him. She manages to tie up the top piece, but she struggles to keep the bottom piece in place.

"Needing assistance?"

She jumped a little and turns to see him behind her peering down at her. She wraps the robe tightly around her.

"No."

"Oh come on. Don't be like that." He snatches her arms apart and quickly gets rid of the robe. Aurelia turns around trying to cover herself. "Be obedient pet…" She crouches down and sits to where her propped up legs can cover some of her body.

"Stand up."

She always does this. She doesn't trust him and he figures it is her right to do so. Although he isn't the kind to let this human have it her way. He motions with his hand for her to stand up.

Begrudgingly she gets up off the floor. He sees her body shaking in fear of him. Yes she should be afraid of him. This wasn't the new start he had in mind but the femme was trying his patience and not cooperating.

He grins at her. "Hmm." His eyes look her over again. "Don't you look delicious." She turns her face away from him feeling herself blush all over. She won't take that so-called compliment to heart. He knows the affect he is having on her. He walks up to her and she presses herself against the wall as much as possible.

"S-stay away." Her bottom lip trembles.

He grabs her face and turns it parallel to his. He stares at her for a moment then grabs her arms and pulls her away from the wall. She stands there in the middle of the bathroom. He raises his hand and with his index finger pointing out, he makes a circular motion.

She shakes her head no which makes him frown at her. In the end she knows he'll win so why does she always try and fight. They stare at each other quietly. She closes her eyes and turns around as quickly as possible. She completes her rotation and faces him with eyes that remain closed.

A click noise causes her to open her eyes. He no longer stands in front of her. The bathroom door is open. Her eyes draw to the large bathroom mirror and looks at how ridiculous she appears. She then searches for something to cover herself. She opens the larger drawers under the sink and finds a towel and wraps herself with it.

Knock Out returns with something else in his hand. He hands it over to her. She looks at him upset. "Do you want to go outside wearing only that?"

She looks at the bundled up white fabric. "I could always re-wear my clothes." She replies curtly.

"I discarded those."

Her mouth drops. "Uh!" She tightly closes her mouth and doesn't make another sound. She snatches the fabric and closes the door locking it. She starts to brush her teeth then quickly changes and opens the door again. She wears a cotton knee length dress with buttons running down the middle. She walks past him and sits on the bed.

"Knock Out? I… I don't know why you're dragging me along."

"Questions again. Alright, I am here on a mission."

"To somehow destroy my home planet?" She crosses her arms looking at him suspiciously.

"Uh, no. To gather certain artifacts for my faction's cause."

"You report to someone don't you?" She eyes his face.

"There is nothing more to say." He sees that he has satisfied some of her curiosity. "I'm going to go change."

Aurelia sees the bathroom door shut. She gets up and looks around the floor to find something to wear on her feet. Gray stilettos remain in the same spot she last put them. "These are going to murder my feet."

Aurelia holds a brochure that is in English while the speaker informs the audience in French and Italian. She looks up at Knock Out, wearing shades that she allowed him to borrow, standing quietly. The two are on a boat that tours around the island.

Moments ago at the hotel Knock Out told her the two were to going to have a leisure day. Aurelia of course didn't believe what he said but decided to go along with it. She questioned him why he would bother with human activities. Apparently, experiencing her planet in human form was different.

The weather felt warm even with the sea breeze blowing past them. Aurelia beheld the island from the boat; it was surrounded by various warm colored cliffs that plunge into the clear, green-blue water. The rugged mountains of the elevated island are the most visible.

She looks to her side and sees he has disappeared. Her head moves from side to side. She turns around and around and still sees no sign of him. She steps away from the group and spots him. "You ditched me." She said as her heels carried her to the stern of the boat. Knock Out's back faces her as his hand lightly rests on the side of his face.

She slows down her pace as she could see his jaw moving slightly. Who was he talking to? She is close enough to reach to him but she stops herself. Did she hear her name? "Aurelia!" She turns around and eyes widen. Her mouth opens slightly. "Wh-Wha?" She turns to look back at Knock Out whose attention is now on the human male.

Aurelia starts pointing at Knock Out accusingly, "You knew he was here! Dammit Knock Out-" He pulls her in closer by her dress but Aurelia manages to pull his hand away. "Stay behind me." He commanded. "No." She sees how unhappy he is with those furrowed eyebrows, "Don't you dare think about it."

He huffs at her never taking his eyes off the male. Aurelia whispers, "What is your real problem with him? Huh?" Knock Out could feel her panic but he wouldn't back down. "What are your true feelings pet? Still hung up on your ex?" She frowns at him not wanting to talk about the subject. "Looks like he has moved on."

Aurelia turns around and sees a dark haired woman now holding onto his arm. Aurelia's heart beats faster and faster as Matteo stops to stand in front of her. "Hey!" He smiles broadly making Aurelia feel a little weak in the knees. She felt herself blush. "H-Hi!"

"Wow, this is quite the coincidence. I thought you would've gotten rid of your cousin." Matteo watches for Knock Out's reaction, but he just stood there staring quietly. "Hey, no hard feelings man." Matteo smiles a little seeing Knock Out not respond.

"Anyways, you look great! But what's with the heels at a beach? Some new style or something?" Just like Matteo to make comments to the other ladies. Aurelia ignores him for the moment and goes to the woman that clings onto him. "Hello. My name is Aurelia. Nice to meet you." The woman perks up and returns the gesture. "It's a pleasure. My name is Rosalie." The woman looks at all three in wonderment.

Matteo speaks up seeing the question in Rosalie's eyes, "Aurelia is…" his ex looks at him in nervousness. "My ex fiancée and that guy behind her is her cousin Knock Out." Aurelia hugs herself trying to calm her nervous self.

"I get the feeling that they're not related." Aurelia starts to sweat under Rosalie's observant eyes.

Matteo looks down at Rosalie, "Yeah right… You think so?" The woman nods confidently. She had witnessed their interaction earlier not knowing who they were.

Aurelia takes a step forward, "No, no. We _are_ related."

Matteo sees Knock Out come closely behind Aurelia and glide a hand over her hip. The hand stops in front her lower stomach. By this time Aurelia stands stiff with her mouth hanging open by the bold move. "The cat's out of the bag."

The red-haired man could be pulling his leg but Matteo could see how Aurelia looked so uncomfortable. "Aurelia is this true?" He couldn't believe this guy. He could be the type to take jokes a step too far.

Aurelia yanks Knock Out's hand away in anger. "Don't pay him any mind. He plays around too much."

Matteo angles his face in confusion, "You seem really nervous. Maybe… you're the one who is lying."

"Whatever. Believe what you want." She leans on one leg and crosses her arms. "How have you been Matteo? What've you been up to?" She wanted to get off this subject.

Matteo stays quiet for only a second. "Doing pretty good actually. Business is picking up, found me a great woman..." He gives Rosalie a smile, "and now we're here."

Aurelia's face changes from seriousness to a forced smile. Her heart sank a little but she held no true grudge against him. Not anymore. "Well, I'm happy for you two. When's the wedding?" Rosalie laughs and looks at Matteo, "We don't know. He hasn't asked me yet." Matteo gives Rosalie a quick peck on the lips and looks up at Aurelia giving her a quick glaring look.

This made Aurelia's lips curve up at the edges. Score one. "How did you two meet? Must've been a romantic encounter."

Rosalie smiles broadly, "You know we met a-" Rosalie felt a tap on the shoulder and she turns around to see a man who tells them to return back to the group. Matteo gives one last glare at Aurelia. She only smiles. The rest of the tour went on without further events.

"Where did he disappear to now?" Aurelia is on the dock looking for Knock Out throughout the crowd. After sometime with no sign of the devil Aurelia goes back on the boat searching for him. "He always disappears."

"Have you missed me?" She heard the whispered voice so close to her ear. She turns around and it's not Knock Out. Her heart beats faster. "Have you seen my cousin?" She did her best to sound calm.

"No. Have you seen Rosalie?"

She shakes her head. "How did we lose them? The group wasn't even that big."

"Is he really your cousin?"

She sighs, "Yes, he is unfortunately."

"Liar, liar. You couldn't even say it straight to my face." He laughs at her angry face.

"Come on. Why lie to me? You won't hurt my feelings if you say he's your boyfriend."

"Hah! We are not like that."

"Ah, so you just admitted that you two are not related. So you two having sex?" He smiles at her wagging an eyebrow.

Aurelia's fist ball up, "No. We are not having sex."

"Really?" He looks at her in disbelief.

Aurelia covers her face. "Yes, really. Can we not talk about this?"

"Why? It's getting interesting. And why are you acting like a baby about this?" He pulls her hands away from her face. "After all this time it's expected that you would find another." She shakes her head.

"Whaa?" He looks at her in astonishment.

"Why is it that people always have to touch the subject of sex?"

"Why not?"

"'Cause… I dunno. Can we find our lost sheep now?"

"Lost sheep?" Aurelia pulls her wrists out of his grasp.

"Matteo!" They look back to see its Rosalie. Matteo gives Aurelia an unreadable expression. She was sure his mind was still on the fact that she hasn't done anything to relieve her needs. His hand reaches out to her cheek but she pulls back. He backs off.

Rosalie makes it to them a bit out of breath. "There you are." She smiled at him then looks at Aurelia.

"Hi Rosalie. Have you seen my cousin?"

"No I haven't."

"Okay. I'll continue my search. You guys have a great day."

"Okay! Bye Aurelia!" Rosalie waves.

"Aurelia wait." She stops at his voice.

"I was thinking maybe you could eat with us and catch up." Rosalie tightens her grip around Matteo's arm. He looks down at her, "It'll be fine."

"I need to find Knock Out."

"I'm sure he'll show up. Until then we can eat at a restaurant nearby where we can see the boat."

Aurelia sees how Rosalie wants to take Matteo far away from her. She can understand Rosalie's feelings on this. "Probably not a good idea. I am not wanted as good company."

Matteo looks at Rosalie, "It'll be fun just us three." He nudges Rosalie trying to get her to agree to this. She forces a smile and a small laugh, "Yeah, join us Aurelia. We can try to get to know each other better."

Aurelia heard that underlying tone. 'I'm going to regret this but I am getting hungry.' She nods, "I'll join you guys for a little while. I won't overstay my welcome." Some company was better than no company.

All three sit at a round table that's located outside in front of the restaurant. The air had a floral and woodsy smell picked up from nearby plants and trees. Matteo bites into a dried meat that had cheese and figs. He offers some of portions to Rosalie but she politely refuses and instead drinks the island's local wine.

Aurelia munches on a few grapes feeling awkward in front of the couple. She gazes out to where the boat has docked and still no sign of Knock Out. She starts to worry. If abandoning her on this island was part of his plan then she'd make the extra effort to appeal her way out. Her eyes look to Matteo and smiles while taking a sip of her non-alcoholic drink.

It was time to make friendly with the ex without upsetting the current girlfriend. "Matteo." Aurelia leans in on the table pursing her lips. "Anything exciting going on in your life?" Of course she didn't know how to do this ably.

Rosalie answers, "There's always plenty of excitement in our lives. Right sweety?" Aurelia almost shivered at the sickened sweetness dripping off Rosalie's words. Aurelia figures her body language sent the wrong message since the girlfriend is on the defense already. Matteo laughs nervously not understanding either woman.

"Ahem. Well, Rosalie isn't wrong. We do have lots of excitement from travel to surprising each other with spontaneity."

"So this trip, who's idea was it?" Aurelia munches on another grape.

"Oh that was my idea." Rosalie said oh so proudly.

"Yeah. She likes scenic nature and stuff like that." Matteo places an arm around Rosalie.

Aurelia grinds her molars hard against the skin of the grape. She recalls how she suggested the very idea to come to this exact island for rest and relaxation. He of course shot down the idea but that was then. The Matteo in front of her now does seem to have changed a little bit.

"I too like things like that. You're lucky Rosalie." Aurelia meant every word.

Rosalie sees a little bit of sadness hinted in Aurelia's features. She looks slowly to Matteo wondering what happened. Matteo's face gave nothing away.

"Oh… um, so wh-" Rosalie stops, thinking it is rude to question their past.

"I… was very in love with Matteo. He of course did not love me since he was the one who broke off our engagement. There were many things he didn't want to compromise during our relationship." She sees Rosalie thinking. Matteo continues to have that same face only in a more serious tone.

"I don't hold anything against him. I just want him to be happy and marry the one he loves." She grabs a fig from her plate and eats it.

"So there. I do forgive you Matteo." Aurelia gives him a small smile. Matteo's only response is parted lips. Rosalie feels Matteo's arm go a little limp. Aurelia looks back out to the boat. She digs through her small purse and pulls out some money and places it on the table. "Oh no, I got it."

Aurelia stands up, "I have to find my cousin or else he'll ditch me on this island."

"You don't have to go. I'm sure your cousin won't do you like that." Although Matteo knew better, he played along with the lie.

Aurelia snorted at that, "Believe me you don't know my cousin that well."

Aurelia extends her hand out to Rosalie and smiles at her. "It was nice to meet you again. You seem very sweet so I get the feeling you'll give him all the love he needs."

She then extends her hand to Matteo, "Have a happy life Matteo. I mean it."

He gives her a hard handshake, "If your cousin gives you trouble hit me up. I mean it."

She nods a little and waves goodbye to them. Matteo watches her walk away with her heels in her hand. Rosalie watches him.

Aurelia now has flat sandals on her feet relieving her of the temperature from the ground. She sees a familiar figure on the dock of the boat. She does a quick sprint all the way to the figure. To her disappointment it was not who she thought. He was too tall to be confused for Knock Out.

"What! What is it?" The voice was gruff and not so nice.

"Sorry… I thought you were someone I knew." She looked at his thin face and light-colored hair. How could she possibly confuse this tall man for Knock Out? Her sense in seeing is not as good as she thought. She rubs her eyes and walks away.

Her eyes squint into the distance and spots a red car on a road. She speedily goes to that direction hoping it was who she thought. "It has to be. How many red luxurious sport cars are around?" She slows down her pace as she gets close enough to see no one in the driver's seat.

She stands there trying to catch her breath. Seeing that the car has the same markings on the sides she starts yelling, "The hell Knock Out!"

She kicks the front wheel and stumbles away from vehicle not wanting to feel his wrath. She looks around noticing nobody nearby. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"How brave of you to dare touch me that way." He spoke in calmness.

"Hey, you ditched me again-"

"Now is not the time for this. Get in." The door swings open on the passenger side.

She gets in wondering what he has in store for her. She doesn't understand herself sometimes. To give in to let him run her over. Not like she could physically do anything about it. Maybe she should've stuck with Matteo to get herself back home.

Even with all this reasoning she was curious as to what was going with him and others just like him. The door closes but he doesn't drive off anywhere. They sit in silence. Aurelia worries but Knock Out is processing that everything has to go according to plan. She hears him mumble, "Where the frag is he? Being in this form exposes me…"

Aurelia ears perked up at this. Then she hears a gruff voice, "Open up."

It's the tall man from earlier standing on the driver's side. "Finally, took you long enough."

"These limbs aren't efficiently equipped for speed." What was another human doing here?

"Oh, right. Well then get in already." Knock Out revs his engine.

The stranger gets in and gets comfortable. He turns to look at Aurelia. "Ah yes, your human pet. I see she is still alive." He sneers. Once inside Knock Out speeds off.

"I didn't recognize her at first. Humans look much too similar for me to distinct."

Aurelia just frowns at his mood and attitude. She didn't understand, they have never met except for earlier today. The stranger sees the wheels turning in her head trying to figure this out. He laughs, "You wouldn't recognize me now would you… not in this pitiful human body."

Her mouth opens slightly. He isn't human so he must be Knock Out's kind, but who was he then? The voice did sound familiar. "Pet, this is Commander Starscream."

Her mouth opens wider and simply nods. She blinks then it hits her who he is. Her eyes widen, "How are you human?" He was the tall lanky machine.

"I'm no longer commander. And that would be all thanks to Shockwave but you don't need to know anything else human."

"Your kind runs in some kind of a militia…" She couldn't escape now that she's stuck inside of Knock Out. No point in being angry since she made her stupid decisions with the alien freak robot.

"Let's finish this off and be done."

Aurelia didn't know what Knock Out meant by that but she sure it wasn't good for her or her planet Earth. So much for the leisure day…

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

A/N: no amount of apologies for the delayed chapter can make up for the long absence. so busy, so, so, busy...


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